The Witch Doctor Incident
by Sqweakie the Wonder Mouse
Summary: January 12th, 2006: The darkest day in the Patrol's history. On that day five hunters and Danny Phantom entered the ghost zone to rescue fifteen kidnapped children. This isn't a joyride, people, this is hell. Companion piece to Orbits of Glass.
1. Thursday January 12th, 2006

**The Witch Doctor Incident  
**_By Sqweakie the Wonder Mouse_

_AN: This is a companion piece to Orbits of Glass. __**This can be considered to be a stand alone fic...you do not need to read Orbits to understand this one**__. All you need to know is that a group of eight human hunters and Danny Phantom watch over the city and protect it from ghost attacks. If you're interested in more of the history you can hop over and read Orbits but that is the key thing you need to know right now._

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"__**To all those who wish to become Ghost Hunters…**_

"_**This video portrays the darkest days of the Patrol. The Witch Doctor, a ghost previously unheard of in Amity, revealed herself to the city and committed one of the worst crimes in the city's history. She kidnapped children right out their homes and attacked their families with her dark arts. Her Voo Doo protected 'her' children when the city's hunters tried to stop her. She fled to the Ghost Zone, leaving behind broken families and the fear of her return.**_

"_**On January 12th, 2006 five humans and their ghost guide entered the Ghost Zone to rescue the fifteen missing children. They traveled alone without the hope of rescue if catastrophe fell on their mission. With no way of knowing the events that would follow, the hunters and ghost all wore mikes and cameras to record their entire journey. What follows is the only visual record of the Ghost Zone and the most complete footage of Ghost Fighting.**_

"_**If you have any illusions about the glory life of a ghost hunter, you'd better reconsider your reasons for joining.**_

"_**This isn't a joyride, People…This is hell."**_

_**Introduction to Video 1-12-2006**__**  
**__**aka The Witch Doctor Incident**_

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Chapter One **_

_Day 1 – Thursday January 12th, 2006_

Danny adjusted the earpiece for the twelfth time. He could admit to himself that he was nervous. He had every right to be nervous. All around him Hunters packed supplies and Hunters checked equipment one last time. Hunters spread out across the basement, blocking all conventional exits from the room. Five of them wore matching headsets and cameras. Danny Phantom wore the sixth set.

He asked if they needed help but they declined. He sat out of the way on top of the cabinet, his perch giving him a view of the entire basement. Closest to him, the married couple Brian and Janet Smith calibrated trackers. Thorton, an older man with brown eyes, closed a box of medical supplies. Next to the Specter Speeder XL his mom had a map out and pointed to different locations. Behind her stood Townsend (a man rivaling Jack Fenton in height) and Anderson, the leader of the exhibition. The last member of the expedition, Jacobs, sat in the cockpit of the speeder. His dad sat in the seat next to him, pointing out the different controls of the Speeder.

While his gaze wandered the basement the Red Hunter appeared on the steps leading upstairs. She stood only for the briefest of seconds before heading back up. Danny caught the motion but no one else in the lab noticed. He floated off the cabinet and rose through the ceiling. Becoming tangible, he landed next to the stove where Valerie stood. She had pulled off her helmet so her hair could fall freely around her face. He eyes flickered to the left and Dan followed her line of vision. Standing in the kitchen doorway were his two best friends.

Sam and Tucker stood bundled in winter coats, hats and boots. Sam wiped sweat off her forehead and Tucker was practically weezing. Today was a school day and Danny didn't expect them to be there. He talked to them the night before during a couple stolen minutes in between offers to help pack and the mini-briefing on their trip.

"We ran all the way here. We were afraid we'd miss you," Sam told him while catching her breath. She leaned against a counter and shed her hat and mittens.

"I'm still here," he said, "but how are you two here? What about class?"

"It's lunch time now…" Sam started.

"And we have Miss Riasser for study hall," Tuck finished. "She already OKed us being late. We wanted to see you before you left." A nervous silence hung in the air. His friends looked like they wanted to say more but unable to find the words. The techno-geek finally made a move. Tucker surprised him by pulling him into a hug. Danny stood frozen. Finally he returned the hug.

"Be careful, man," Tuck managed to choke out. He stepped away and Sam took his place. Danny returned her hug a lot quicker.

"You'd better come back in one piece. I don't want to have to steal the extra speeder to track you down." She sounded brave and sarcastic but her eyes shimmered with tears. Quickly she kissed his cheek before pulling out of his grasp. She stepped out of the way and Valerie replaced her.

The Red Hunter bit her lip and rubbed her arm subconsciously, helmet conspicuously missing. She did not say a word or made a motion to hug him like Tuck and Sam. Danny wished her to stay safe and turned towards the stairs.

"Danny!"

He turned around just as Val hit him full force. Instinctively he caught her while she wrapped her arms around his neck. Finally he let go, sensing it was time. He only caught a glimpse of Valerie's tear-stained face before pulling on her helmet, back to business.

"I'll wait a couple of minutes before coming down," she said, calm and collected. Danny nodded before she left out of the back door of the kitchen. He assumed the hunter headed out to make sure no ghosts were hanging around before the expedition entered the Ghost Zone. It gave him a couple of minutes alone with his best friends.

Sam and Tuck remained in the kitchen trying to find a way to say goodbye. Danny pulled them into a group hug, soaking in their warmth. Tuck and Sam wouldn't be there to support him this time. Through everything they had been next to him. Now they had to stay behind to help Valerie.

"I'm coming back, I promise," he whispered to them. "Take care of each other."

"We will," Sam told him just as quietly.

Stomach twisted in a knot, he pulled away. He dove through the floor and returned to the cabinet. He didn't tell Sam or Tuck goodbye. If he did, he would be admitting that there was a chance he wouldn't come back. He couldn't put his friends thru that. No one in the lab acknowledged his return as he settled to his perch.

True to her word, Valerie marched down the stairs not five minutes later. This time everyone noticed her approach. Anderson greeted her when she reached the bottom before launching into a set of questions. She nodded at his inquiries, remaining silent. She was there at the insistence of Phantom. No one besides the halfa knew who was under the helmet. Whatever Valerie answered must have met his approval because Anders led her to the table with the map.

"Every one, gather round," Anderson called. The last minute projects abandoned, nine ghost hunters and one ghost met in the center. They circled around the table and the crude map held down by an assortment of beakers. Everyone gathered looked grim. Any other time joy and curiosity would have beamed out at the thought of exploring the Ghost Zone but now the situation was grim.

Anderson stood across from Danny. The man stood just above average in height, his brown hair cropped short and blue eyes, a couple shades darker than Danny's human eyes, pierced anyone he looked at. The man wore a tight jumpsuit, black accented with crimson red. His personal weapons (the same as his cousin Jacobs) were silver with gray inserts. Danny knew from experience that the gray glowed bright red when the weapons was powered up and fired.

To the left stood Townsend. The man could look Danny's father in the eye without effort. Dark eyes peered out from underneath heavy eyebrows and a mop of dark brown hair. He was a muscular man with tanned skin. Resting at his side was a ecto-equivalent of an Uzi. His dark pants and padded brown leather jacket clashed with Dad's orange jumpsuit who stood next to him. His and his partner's black and blue ectoguns sat packed in the speeder. He worked with the heavy artillery comparable to bazookas and machine guns.

Next came Jacobs. A head shorter than Towns and Danny's father, he seemed diminutive next to the other men. His black hair spiked out a little and complimented the trimmed goatee surrounding the whitest teeth Danny witnessed. The docile look deceived the real Jacobs, ex-Army who served his four years and returned stateside just before he joined Anderson in Amity. In the army he drove humvees and transport trucks until released from his contract, an honorable discharge. His dull green eyes sparked with determination at the upcoming mission.

To the driver-turned-pilot's left stood the Smiths. The husband, Brian, was the epitome of NASA nerd. He dressed in khakis and a dress shirt (pocket protector sold separately) with wire-rimmed glasses completing the look. His dirty blond hair was combed neatly and framed a pale face with watery-blue eyes. His arm hooked with his wife's…a woman the polar opposite of her husband.

Janet Smith was a certified army brat, having lived in nine different states and four different countries. While her husband looked pale and washed out, her reddish-brown hair and bright green eyes highlighted by her freckles. Instead of a high-tech jumpsuit she chose black fatigue pants, gray shirt covered by a black flack jacket and a pair of black combat boots. To add to the surreal image she strapped several ecto-handguns on her hips and under her arms, small knives infused with ectoplasm lay hidden in her clothes. It seemed odd that with a martial image portrayed, the mother of two and weapons expert wore purple nail polish.

Danny stood between Janet and Valerie, in his ghost form he fit in with the odd group. Janet's shoulder bumped against his. When he turned towards her, she gave him a small, confident smile making him smile in return. Having worked with Janet and her husband in the past, he felt the most comfortable with the hunter. Val stayed motionless next to him but he could swear he could feel her gaze when he glanced at her. Unfortunately, the mirrored faceplate hid her expression and face, a better disguise than the green plate that originally appeared a year before.

Last in the circle was Danny's mother, Maddie Fenton and Thorton (Townsend's partner). His mom crossed and uncrossed her arms in a nervous gesture while Anderson talked. Thorton, more commonly called Thor, stood silent next to her. Born in Britain and transplanted to the states when he was a teenager, the man's quiet and patient demeanor made him a very effective hunter. The oldest out of the group, his gray hair turned green in the open portal's light. At his waist he coiled a whip stained with ectoplasm and the man specialized in tranqs and stunners that knocked out ghost instead of harming them.

As everyone stood around the table Anderson used the Phantom's hand drawn map to point out the rough path to their destination: Pariah Dark's Castle. The night before a ghost gave them a tip: the Witch Doctor set up shop in the Ghost King's home. It wasn't much of a lead but it was the only thing they could go on. The hunters planned to go into the Ghost Zone, check out the castle and start their search from there.

With everyone around him, their leader gave them a long stare. Five humans and one ghost searching the entire Ghost Zone for fifteen missing children. Everyone assembled was good. Years of experience circled the table. All pitted that knowledge against a ghost who showed no mercy and a creature that passed off herself as a human easily. The Witch Doctor could be the most dangerous ghost that the human hunters had ever faced.

"Before the cameras are turned on I have one last question," Anderson finally asked. "Are you ready to go through that portal? This is no joy ride, people. Lives are at stake, children's lives and our own. If you are not sure you can do this, now is the time to back out. No one will blame you. Hell, even I'm nervous. We can't have anyone freak out and we are not turning around until we find every last child. If you want to get out, leave."

Silence met the speech. The hunters looked at their peers seeing if any would break ranks and leave the basement. It was the only ghost in the group that finally spoke. "If we don't go, who will? I'm in." The others nodded, encouraged by Danny's statement. There was no one else…literally. The only hunters left in Amity were the Fentons, Smith's husband and Valerie (if you didn't count Sam or Tucker). They stayed behind to protect the city. If the expedition failed to stop the Witch Doctor the four became the last defense in Amity Park. If_ they_ failed, The Witch Doctor won, completely and totally.

With a deep breath Anders triggered the six headsets, small red lights blinking to life as the identical cameras began to record six different views of the lab. Microphones picked up the individual noises of the hunters and the breathless sigh of a ghost. Anderson put on a brave face spouting out a practiced, inspirational speech. Smith looked confident. Thor's attention turned to the Specter Speeder XL as Jack Fenton loaded and sealed the last external compartment. Every ones else's attention was on the lab.

"Its ready to go Anders," Jack said. The leader of the expedition nodded and led the way into the speeder. Danny followed the brunette man but he paused just inside the craft while Anders checked the loaded supplies. The main hatch opened into the cargo/passenger area. Right now individual seats filled the front half. The back half held pop-up benches or beds that pulled out of the wall. Right now they were stowed away to make room for the supplies.

Jacobs passed around him and entered the cockpit. Curious, Danny followed him. Up here four jump seats replaced the single bench of the original speeder. Jacobs settled in the pilot's seat, strapping in as he started the preflight checklist Danny and his friends ignored.

"Phantom." He jumped and spun around. Anderson stood right behind him, startling him because he didn't hear the man come thru the door.

"Why don't you take shotgun," he motioned to the front passenger seat.

Nervously Danny sat down and strapped himself in. Anderson sat behind the pilot and the only female hunter on the trip, Janet Smith, took the last open seat. Smith would pilot the SSXL while Jacobs slept. They were going into this with few illusions. The Box Ghost insisted that the Witch Doctor set up her lair in the abandoned castle. The hunters took the tip but were prepared to find nothing. It could be days before they found the actual lair or the children. Jacobs would have to sleep some time during the hunt. Smith would fly the speeder when he slept so they could continue their search around the clock. Danny volunteered to pilot the Speeder but Anderson refused, only trusting him so far. Still, he was their guide in the Ghost Zone since no one else on the expedition had entered it, much less travel to Dark's castle.

As Jacobs counted down their takeoff and the engines whined to life, Danny watched the people left in the lab. His parents stood together with disappointment on their faces. With Jazz back in the hospital with pneumonia, they volunteered to stay behind. His dad wrapped an arm around his mom's shoulder as the speeder lifted off the ground, another opportunity to explore the Ghost Zone lost to them.

Not far from the couple, Brian Smith stood alone. A researcher at heart, his more-active wife took the spot on the expedition. They had two children around Danny's age that were attending school at the moment. Janet Smith looked just as nervous as her husband. She mouthed an 'I love you' that Danny caught when he turned in his seat to look at her.

As the speeder inched towards the Portal Danny turned forward to study the last hunter in the basement. The Red Huntress stood motionless at her post next to the open Portal. Posture unreadable, her face and expression hid under her mirrored faceplate. Danny could see the Speeder and the lab reflected in her visor but he couldn't see her, not knowing how his friend felt about staying behind.

The engines roared and the speeder shot forward leaving Valerie behind and throwing them into a maze of green and black. Danny closed his eyes for a brief second to fight the nervous fear and dread. When his green eyes opened he pushed the negative feelings to the dark corner of his mind where he left those types of thoughts.

Eyes open, he could see the depths of the Ghost Zone. Doors made a crooked path to their right, slowly shifting like constellations in the night sky. A gasp came from behind him. Seatbelts unclipped and Smithy appeared in his peripheral vision. "This is the ghost zone?" she asked, astonished. Anderson humphed and disappeared into the cargo area unimpressed.

"Most of these doors lead to ghost lairs," Danny explained. "Occasionally they lead to the real world."

"So which one is yours?" Jacobs inquired as he piloted them along the path of doors and deeper into the Ghost Zone.

"Huh?" Phantom responded eloquently.

"Your lair?" the man asked again.

"None of them. I don't live in the Ghost Zone," he answered honestly.

"Why?" This time the question came from Smith as she flopped back into the seat behind Jacobs and stared out the windows.

Danny flipped a switch that Jacobs couldn't reach. "I'm not like most ghosts. I don't belong here," he motioned to the green expanse. "I belong in Amity Park."

"How do you know that?" Smithy asked. "I mean, how do you know that you belong there and not anywhere else in the real world?"

Danny shrugged, unable to verbalize the feeling. Amity was home, whether he was in ghost form or human. "I just know."

"Which way to the castle?" Jacobs interrupted, eyes searching the sky.

Danny studied the doors and broken pieces of earth. A year ago he followed the path left by thousands of skeleton ghosts. The trail long disappeared but the landmarks remained…sort of. Nothing stayed stationary in the ghost zone but the larger the object the less it drifted. In the distance he could see the first landmark on the trail to Pariah Dark's castle.

Out of habit he grabbed the controls and directed the speeder towards a chunk of rock in the shape of a head. Smith swore and slid out of her seat when the speeder dove and swung to the left. With the new direction the head seemed to turn and took on the profile of a famous singer.

"It looks like Elvis," Jacobs said in awe, surprise fighting with laughter.

"Just keep flying to Elvis Rock," Danny instructed with a chuckle. "We should get there in a couple of hours." He flipped switches, turning on the exterior lights and setting the real world detector to automatic. With practiced ease Jacobs and Phantom coaxed the speeder along the alien landscape.

Someone kicked a lever under Danny's seat. Controls disappeared from under his hands as the chair spun around to face Anderson. He slammed his hands on the armrests, trapping Danny with his presence. His eyes widened at the sight of Anders' bright red face.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Anders yelled right into Danny's face. "Did I give you permission to even touch the controls?"

"Leave him alone Anders," a male voice commanded. Smith appeared at Anders' side, physically pulling at his arm and telling him to leave Phantom alone. The hunter glared at him before pulling away. Seeing an exit, Danny released his restraints and flew to the cargo area. He dropped to the deck, wincing when he heard footsteps from the cockpit. Expecting Round Two with Anderson, he was relieved to see Townsend step through the opening.

"Don't take anything he says personally. He doesn't care for ghosts. Smithy's gonna keep him in the cockpit until he cools off," the large man told him after he closed the cockpit door. Danny didn't respond.

"What was he doing?" Thorton asked curiously from the back of the speeder. Towns threw an arm around the ghost's shoulders and led him towards his partner. Thor had one of the boxes open, counting the sealed food packages and checking it against his clipboard.

"Anders was just bothering the kid," the hunter said crossly once they were close enough. The two men worked a couple times with Danny in Amity to catch a couple of rogue ghosts. The only hunters the half ghost didn't work with were Jacobs and Anderson, something he was grateful for after the last ten minutes.

"Are you ok?" the Englishman asked Danny in concern.

"Yeah, I'll survive. I don't know how someone like him gets to be in charge," Danny muttered as he flopped into a seat. He thought he said it quiet enough but the other two hunters still heard him.

"If you ignore the bias against ghosts, he is a good leader." Thor's soothing tone drew Danny's eyes to the British hunter.

"Why does he hate ghosts so much?" he couldn't help but ask. Thor and Towns looked at each other. After a couple of beats and raised eyebrows Townsend sat next to him.

"When Anders was a kid," the man said, "his parents moved to a house in Waukesha. Nice house, nice neighborhood but no one lived in the place for more than a couple of months. His parents assumed it was a lemon. Maybe the roof leaked or heating bills were outrageous. They bought the house super cheap. Well, not a week goes by and accidents started happening. People kept tripping and objects fell off shelves when no one was in the room. Then the scratching starts and nightmares kept the three kids awake and things kept getting worse."

"A poltergeist," Danny breathed out. "I ran into one months ago. They don't stay in Amity because there are so many other ghosts. They're weak but they can do a lot of damage to humans."

"You know that and I know that," Towns said as he pointed to his chest. "But his parents didn't."

"Ander's father didn't believe the wild stories that something was scratching and hurting them. The father and mother thought the kids hurt each other and then tried to blame an imaginary ghost. Well," Townsend said after a pause, "on Anders' ninth birthday he went upstairs to put his presents in his bedroom. His family was downstairs in the living room. All of a sudden they heard him scream. They ran into the hallway to see him falling down the stairs. At the top of the staircase was a little purple blob and it was laughing.

"Everyone could see the poltergeist, including his Dad's brother (a cop) and his cousins. His uncle grabbed him and they all rushed out of the house to get to safety. At the hospital they found out he had a broken ankle and a concussion. The doctor looked straight at the family and told them to burn down the house and leave the city.

"His parents returned to the house once to pack up all their possessions and the house was bulldozed in. When he was old enough, Anderson started tracking and trapping ghosts. It became an obsession."

Thor took over. "So when he looks at you he doesn't see Danny Phantom. He sees the creature that tortured him for months and pushed him down the stairs. The only reason you are here instead of a Thermos is because Smithy wanted you. We needed a guide and she trusts you. Her opinion matters to Anders but he hates having you here."

"Just try and stay out of his way," Townsend advised. Danny nodded.

"Thanks for telling me. I'm gonna fly around for a while," he said as he floated into the air. "I want to take a look around. Something doesn't feel right."

"That's a good idea," Thor agreed. "Call us if you see anything."

Danny rose right through the roof into the green emptiness of the Ghost Zone. Everything looked normal but it was too quiet. He circled to the underside of the speeder. Doors hovered in abstract patterns but no ghost appeared. This worried Danny as he drifted farther from the others.

"Phantom, what are you doing out there?" Anderson's voice came over his headset. He sighed for his lost peace before responding.

"I just needed some fresh air," he stated as he looped farther away.

"Very cute," the leader growled. "Now tell me the real reason you're out there."

"I haven't sensed or seen any ghosts since we got here," Danny explained. "Normally I've been confronted at least twice by now."

"Are you sure?" the human asked, disbelief coming across clear on the comm.

"Yes," Danny said, the words coming out stiffly. "But I haven't seen anyone. Not even in the distance."

"Sounds like we're on the right track," Smith piped in. "If I were a ghost I wouldn't stay within ten miles of that psychopath."

"Bitter?" Jacobs asked over the comm. Danny had to smile at that.

"I took Jason and Ann to her when they had strep throat. She acted sweet as puddin'. I actually thought she was a good doctor. She could have taken the twins instead of one of the other kids. Makes me sick."

"Is it alright if I drift around," Danny interrupted. "I want to see if any ghosts are hiding nearby."

"Don't go too far," Anderson ordered. "I want you stay in contact range at all times."

"Yes, sir," Danny said sarcastically.

"Don't push it. We have Thermoses for a reason. I wouldn't feel too bad using it to keep you in one place."

"I'll behave," Phantom's voice sounded resigned.

"Just be careful," Smithy said over the comm.

"I will."

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R&R _

_AN: I know I said Sunday but I'm still waiting for my beta to get back to me so there might be some small edits after this. This'll probably by a seven to nine chapter story. I'm trying to limit myself on this one._

_Disclaimer: Roses are red, violets are blue, I don't own so you don't sue. (I don't own the poem either, ;)_

_Edited March 21st, 2007_

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	2. Friday January 13th, 2006

**The Witch Doctor Incident**  
_By Sqweakie the Wonder Mouse _

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**Chapter Two**__  
Day 2 – Friday January 13th, 2006_

Danny flew for hours. After supper (earth time) he headed back to the speeder, never seeing a single ghost. They reached Elvis Rock and moved on for the next landmark, the doors to Dora's Castles. Late into the night they reached the doors. Danny tried to enter the castle realm on his own but the doors did not move, locked from the other side. If not for the presence of the hunters, he would have passed through the doors in human form. Instead, he laid an icy cold hand on the unmovable door that kept ghosts like himself and the Witch Doctor out.

Midnight in the Ghost Zoned could be mistaken for day if not for clocks and the exhausted hunters. Anderson ordered Thor, Towns, and Jacobs to the cargo area and the awaiting fold-out bunks. That left Janet Smith to fly the speeder while Danny lounged in the co-pilot's seat as the speeder made its way farther from Amity and the real world.

Eventually Smithy kicked him out of the cockpit with the excuse that he should try to get some sleep. He tried to protest but his body betrayed him and he yawned in the middle of his argument. She physically dragged him to the back and tucked him into a bunk, boots and all.

"Do you do this to your own kids?" he asked as he pulled off his headset and set it on the floor within easy reach.

"Of course. Especially when they insist they don't need to go to bed," she answered with a motherly smile. "It doesn't matter if you're a ghost or not, you're still a teenager and you should get some sleep."

"I can always get up after you're gone," he mumbled to himself as Smithy started back to the cockpit.

"Ask my kids what happens when they sneak out," she said over her shoulder. The battle not worth it, Danny pulled the blanket over his head and settled down. With some turning and one last resigned sigh, he closed his eyes and chanted '_stay in ghost form... stay in ghost form'_ in his head. His body relaxed and sleep claimed him.

Hours later something shook his shoulder and a voice scolded him from outside his blanket cocoon.

"It's Friday, Mom. Can't I skip school today?" he said, sleep still clouding his mind. Laughter erupted all around him and none of it sounded anything like his mother's.

"At lease he knows the day of the week 'Mom'." The voices became clearer and started to sound familiar. He fought the haze of sleep, trying to figure out where he was.

"Get up, Phantom!"

The name shocked him awake. He sat up on the bunk, the blanket slipping off his head. He rubbed his eyes to clear his vision. Opening his bright-colored eyes he looked past the silver hair to see the hunters spread out in the cargo area. Danny pushed his hair away from his face, relieved to have stayed in his ghost form and none of the humans were the wiser.

"It's time for the briefing," Anderson said gruffly. Stiffly, he turned around and headed back to the cockpit. Janet piped up just before he passed the threshold.

"Give him a minute to wake up…Mom," Smith added the last with a snicker. She dropped onto Danny's bunk while Townsend and Thorton spun chairs around to face Danny's bunk. The halfa remained where he was as he wrapped his blanket around his shoulders.

The speeder shuddered and whined before he heard a large clunk. Curious, Danny stuck his head out the wall to see where they were. The speeder sat on a large chunk of rock sheltered by green haze. The rest of the ghost zone remained indistinguishable beyond the fog. He pulled his head back in to see the three hunters staring at him

"Did you have to do that?" Towns asked.

"Yeah," he said with a sleepy yawn. "What's wrong?"

"It's a little unnerving to see someone stick their head through a solid metal wall, that's all," Thor told him. Anderson returned to the cargo area at that point, Jacobs in tow. The pilot pulled up a crate to sit on while their leader opted to stand.

"Do we have to go over this again?" Smithy asked while repressing her own yawn.

"We've only gone over this five times already," Jacobs agreed. Every one else present nodded.

"I want you all prepared when we confront this ghost. If that means we go ever the information fifty times, we will."

He pushed a button on the wall. A panel slid to reveal a flat screen. The TV reluctantly flickering to life, a standard picture ID found at any hospital in the US filling the screen. Smiling deceptively from the screen a woman with skin of ebony and eyes a sparkling violet. In contrast to the dark skin and eyes, the hair pulled into a bun shone silvery-white. Only her head and lab coat-covered shoulders were visible but the rest of her must have appeared just as human.

"Doctor Patricia Nuodov. Born in Africa, went to school in Atlanta, Georgia. Became a pediatrician working at various hospital and worked at Amity General since November. Wonderful doctor and liked by her coworkers at the hospital. Only problem is that her heart stopped decades ago and she calls herself the Witch Doctor.

"She has the basic ghost powers: flying, invisibility, intangibility and ectoabilities. On top of that she seems to have specialized in abilities that mimic Vodoun or Voodoo as most people know it. It isn't known how much she follows the traditional earth voodoo and how much is her personal style. The last of her known abilities, and probably the most interesting, is her ability to create portals to and from the Ghost Zone."

He pressed another button and the ID picture shrunk and moved to the corner of the screen. A new black and white image replaced it on the screen. This one looked slightly out of focus, like it had been magnified. The picture was of a ghost in motion. A soft glow set off her purple skin. Silver hair made waves down her back, beads strung through her mane. She wore a simple linen shirt, the collar open enough to reveal beaded necklaces. Her skirt flowed to the floor and Danny assumed it was as multicolored as the beads she wore. A shawl fell down her back and wrapped around her elbows adding to the eccentric and elegant image.

The picture came to life in silence. The woman walked across the room and stepped into the shadows not reached by a nightlight near the door. A subtle glow shimmered around her as she passed a crib and knelt next to a bed. From inside her shirt she pulled out a vial. She lifted up the sleeping child in the bed and poured the contents of the vial down his throat. The boy coughed and light flashed around him, creating a glow similar to the ghost's aura. The ghost witch picked up the child just as someone burst into the room. The camera caught her insincere smile before she spoke words unheard by the camera.

The man dropped to the floor with a silent scream. Nuodov paid him no more attention, turning from the collapsed human. She shifted the child in her arms and swept her free hand in a circular motion. The air tore apart and the unholy light of the Ghost Zone illuminated the bedroom. The ghost stepped into the portal that she created. It sealed behind her, plunging the room in darkness.

The television blanked out before returning to the initial images of the Witch Doctor, a human id and the ghost version of the same woman. The cold silence filled the speeder just as it had filled the room the first time the hunters observed this video. Each viewing turned Danny's heart to ice, fearing for the innocent children already taken by the mad woman. A similar scene had played out fourteen other times, each one leaving an empty bedroom and fallen parents in its wake. Anderson's jaw clenched tight before he started talking.

"The little boy is Matthew West, only five years old. With all of the previous kidnappings his parents became paranoid and installed a closed circuit camera in the bedroom. They thought that would be enough to protect him and his baby brother.

"Fifteen children were taken over the past two weeks, ages ranging from four to seven years of age… all of different cultural backgrounds, race, and a mix of boys and girls. At five of the homes parents or other adult relatives were incapacitated while all other minor children were left alone, unharmed." The cold silence continued though the cargo hold. This was all old information, even if it was painful to hear. The Ghost Hunters had protected Amity for the past couple of months with little collateral damage and with minimal civilian injuries. Now fifteen children were missing and the city doubted the hunters for the first time.

Soberly, Anderson discussed their strategy. The hunters planned on reaching Pariah Dark's castle the following day. Once there, they would break off into two groups to search the castle for the witch, the children, and any clues if neither ghost nor children were found. If the Witch Doctor resided in the castle as they hoped, one group would confront Nuodov while the others search and rescue the humans. Again, Anderson expounded on everyone's roles and went over details everyone knew. At the end he added one last thing, one note new to those assembled.

"Right before we left, I finally received the analysis on the vial found at the Schrader's house."

"What vial?" Danny asked. He didn't remember hearing anything about a vial (or anything else) found at victim number twelve's house.

"The cops found it under a dresser after we left," Jacobs explained. "It appeared to be similar to the vial in the video. We figured the witch dropped it when the family dog attacked her. She killed it and left in a hurry with a six year old child. The vial must have fallen when she was attacked."

"We ended up sending one of the samples to a crime lab in Baltimore to get a spectral analysis of the residue left inside the glass," Anders interrupted. "They found a lot of interesting things, mostly a variation of common ectoplasm. The stuff has the ability to adhere to human blood cells and other tissues. The ecto doesn't seem to affect bodily functions or cause any damage."

"What would be the purpose of that?" The question came from Townsend as he leaned back in his seat. Danny's forehead furrowed as he recalled a past conversation with Val and their arguments about one of the stranger facts about the ghost zone.

"It's got to be a way to get around the intangible-human thing in the ghost zone," he said out loud. Everyone turned towards him after his outburst. He started at Nuodov's picture and chewed his lip, mentally trying to put the idea into words.

"Explain," Anderson ordered.

"Well," Phantom started, "humans and human objects tend to phase through everything in the ghost zone. If a person has a strong enough will they can make themselves tangible for a short time. Otherwise, a human has to be under the influence of a ghost artifact or be internally infused with ectoplasm to become tangible."

"Theoretically, there has to be some isolated areas of the ghost zone where humans can interact with ghost without ectoplasm or gadgets." Townsend's theory hit pretty close to the truth.

"There are some spots," Danny said after a time. "There is only one or two that I know of personally and they are the lairs to very powerful ghosts. Normally, other ghosts wouldn't trespass but maybe one would for an ingredient found no where else in the zone."

"I wonder if the ectoplasm is different in these areas," Smith mused. "It would explain why the ecto in the vial was a little different than the stuff normally found here. If you could bottle it…"

"And get it ingested by a human," Thor continued, "with the other proper ingredients; you would have a magical elixir that would allow a human to interact with the ghost zone all the time. There would be no need for gadgets, artifacts, or a strong will. It would be perfect for…"

"For a child," Danny finished the thought. "And since there is no damage to the human tissues it wouldn't be harmful like some objects that I have seen used on humans."

"Well," Jacobs said, "this could be the answer to one of our questions about our dear witch. If this 'elixir' is able to keep the kids tangible in the ghost zone then they could be held against their will and they may not show up on the Real World Item Locator. They would appear to have ectoplasm like everything else. The question is why does she want the children in the first place?"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

She smiled down at the sleeping figures. Fifteen little children at the perfect age for her to mold into perfect apprentices lay spread out across the room. Red eyes twinkled with the possibilities that slept right below her. A whimper drew her attention to one small child. A little girl, hair pulled into pigtails, turned and tossed in her sleep. The witch walked down the steps, letting her footfalls warn the girl that some one walked towards her.

Predictably, the girl stopped moving and pretended to be asleep. The ghost smiled, amused by the actions of her little girl. She knelt next to the child, laying an ice cold hand on her shoulder. The human startled and jumped away from the touch.

"It is just a dream, Dear Heart," she said. "Mama Nuodov is here to protect you." The girl looked up to see a very human-looking woman crouched next to her bed. With a whispered word the Witch Doctor's purple skin hid under brown and her eyes became a shaded violet. Her clothes retained their whimsical colors but her aura sunk underneath, hiding her ghostly countenance. "Nothing can hurt you, Emily."

'Emily' jumped into her arms, her fear departed. Cradling the girl, the witch stood up and rocked her as they made their way to the upper level and to her workshop. This late in the Ghost Zone she had work to do. Some of her potions could only be brewed during the 'night' of the zone when ghosts relaxed and an icy wind tore across the grounds of the castle. Trusting one of the ghostly whispers to alert her if another child awoke, she entered her workshop and closed the heavy wooden door. Shelves lined the walls while tables filled half the room. In one bare portion of the far wall a set of glass doors opened to a balcony with a view of the ghost zone. Her attention was not drawn to the balcony but to the right of the doors. Near a window a book waited for her on a bookstand. Every spell she discovered, every potion created was recorded in this single tome.

She gracefully made her way to the book, idly turning pages as the little girl snuggled against her shoulder. A ghost of a smile pressed against her lips as thoughts of all she could teach the human in her arms. Finally she found the page she sought, a binding spell and potion; easy to learn and brew for the child but wickedly useful in the Ghost Zone.

A hesitant cough drew her attention from the book and destroyed her good mood.

"What are you doing back," she hissed at the ghost. Standing in the balcony doorway a humanoid ghost waited nervously. One of her spies, she charged him with the observation of the Amity Park portal. Instead, he took up space on her balcony.

"I bring news," his rough voice ground out. "Humans have entered the Ghost Zone and are taking the path to the ghost king's castle."

The Witch Doctor took the news realistically, without displays of temper or destruction of items or spies. She expected the humans to search for her children, just not so soon. Nuodov set the girl down on one of the tables before lighting a fire and placing a cauldron over it. Plans formed immediately, each one a different way of dealing with the intruders.

"How many humans?" she asked while dumping brackish water into the cauldron.

"Five and the halfa is traveling with them." She nodded to herself and selected a jar from the shelves. She sprinkled the contents into the water.

"I have slept many long years. What is this 'halfa'?" The spy took this as his cue to enter the room. He stepped closer ash she danced between the fire and the shelves adding ingredients to the cauldron.

"He is half human and half ghost. He claims to protect the humans and forces ghosts back into the ghost zone."

"Does this creature have a name?"

"Danny Phantom."

"He's probably a ghost with a deluded sense of purpose. The right object or talisman and he will be at my mercy. Humans…humans on the other hand barely touch this plane," she mused out loud as she tapped her chin. "I need something special to bind my creatures so they can touch these intruders to the ghost zone."

Coolly she picked up a ceremonial knife and approached the little girl once forgotten. The Witch Doctor touched her cheek while smiling at the innocent child.

"It will only hurt for a second Dear Heart," she promised the girl. With one quick movement her knife bit and the girl screamed. Nuodov smiled coldly before tossing her prize into the boiling cauldron.

"Stop those tears," she soothed the startled girl. "Hair grows back." The girl sniffled as she gently fingered the stub where a pigtail once hung. The witch picked up little Emily and brought the girl with her to the cauldron. Softly she sang the song of binding and explained the ingredients to her little apprentice. The little girl watched, fascinated by the swirling, changing colors of the potion. The Witch Doctor smiled as she continued her unnatural song. Finally the cauldron shimmered green. Bouncing the girl on her hip, she took a wicker basket off a shelf and set it down next to the fire.

"Pick one out," she instructed Emily. She hesitantly reached into the basket and lifted out a small rag doll. Faceless and crude, the little bundle of cloth appeared harmless and inert.

"Toss it into the pot," the ghost gently ordered. Emily dropped the doll in and squealed when a small cloud of pink curled into the air. The woman threw in her own rag doll and it landed with its own puff of orange smoke.

Nineteen more dolls joined the first two inside the cauldron. Each floated below the surface, the water turning from green to a sickly red, darker with each addition. She stirred the liquid four times before placing the lid, hiding the dolls from sight. She moved the cauldron from the fire and left it suspended in the air.

She handed Emily to her informant with calming words to send the girl to sleep and the two headed back to the dormitory. With the child out of sight an evil smile crawled across her face as the human image dissolved. Pots and vials jumped at the flick of her wrist. She sang a new song, more sinister that the songs for Emily. She sang for the defeat of her enemies, of absolute loss and destruction. As new potions created themselves under her watchful eyes, she perched on a table to keep singing. She sang for the deaths of the souls of the humans and ghost that thought to defy her and steal back her children, her little apprentices. Off to the side the cauldron of dolls shivered with her words.

_

* * *

R&R_

AN: I know it's been months. Life can be wonderful and a bitch at the same time. About two and a half months ago my mom had a MRI and they found a tumor on her brainstem and she had brain surgery, a seventeen hour procedure. She is doing wonderful considering everything she has been through. Most of my time and energy has been directed to home and family. Just in the past week or two I finally made it to a computer to type. Hopefully I'm back to stay. Thank you for all your support. A full explanation can be found on my bio.

_**Thanks to: katiesparks, Tetsukon, Pterodactyl, Nobody Famous, JTN, Sasia, Quacked Lurker, and Arabic Blessing.**_

**_Edited March 21st, 2007_**


	3. Saturday January 14th, 2006

**The Witch Doctor Incident  
**_By: Sqweakie the Wonder Mouse_

_AN: Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. My mom is doing good now, after a couple setbacks that sent her to Madison twice, the second time in renal failure. She's back home and a lot better._

_**

* * *

Chapter Three ** _

_Day 3 – Saturday January 14th, 2006_

Ahead loomed the remains of a great citadel. Craters broke the stone courtyard and the outer wall of the ancient building. The large porticos of Pariah Dark's Castle lay broken and the unprotected entryway gaped like a black mouth.

Jacobs slowed the speeder as they approached the entrance. The tension was palpable; Anderson, Jacobs and Danny all searched the world beyond the windshield for threats. The speeder pilot took an audible breath before plunging the speeder into darkness. Danny's aura gave off a slight glow, barely illuminating the controls under his hands. He flipped a couple of switches, turning on the dashboard lights and the floodlights mounted on the exterior of the speeder.

Anders growled at his actions but kept his tongue still. There was no sense in starting a fight when the Witch Doctor could be beyond the darkened hallway.

"Which way should we go, Phantom?" Jacobs asked, voice quieter due to the castle's dark atmosphere.

"Keep going straight," he said after a moment. "At the end of the hall is a large room. If she's not there, she's not in the ruins."

"Are you sure," Anderson asked from the seat behind Jacobs.

"There are no other rooms," Danny told the hunter, turning around in his seat to do so. "The walls collapsed, leaving just this hallway and the throne room intact."

The speeder slowly moved down the passage until two doors once blocked the way. The once grand doors were nothing but burned splinters hanging on the hinges and scattered across the ground. Danny destroyed then the same day he fought the Ghost King in the room beyond. Jacobs paused before coercing the speeder out of the hallway. The mess outside couldn't prepare the hunters for the indoor catastrophe. Inside the throne room, broken stones from the walls littered the floor. The damage to the walls alone was devastating, even before one took into account the burn marks and ruined décor that added to the ruins.

"It looks like two giants fought in here," the pilot said in trepidation.

"I almost didn't survive," Danny told the man softly. He looked down at his lap, never looking up at the damaged throne room. He could remember it clearly. Two years hadn't faded the memory of Pariah Dark. He could remember every punch thrown, every hit and blast taken. He could still feel the suit draining him, killing him. He could remember falling to his knees as Dark struggled against the coffin's lid and the final feelings of betrayal as Vlad took the Crown of Fire and, ultimately, the Ectosuit.

Everything looked as it did two years ago when he dared to look. Nothing changed past the dust and debris. The Witch Doctor never set foot in this place.

"She's not here," Danny said, convinced. "Let's get out of here." Jacobs started to turn the speeder towards the exit when Anderson told him to stop and land. Danny turned around in his seat to ask why but Anders wasn't looking at him. He was looking at the shattered north wall. Beyond the fallen masonry, the space was lit by a single light shining on the Coffin of Forever Sleep.

Jacobs looked over at Danny and his suddenly pale face while the expedition leader slid out of his restraints, eyes focused on the Dark's resting place. Uncertain, the pilot landed the speeder in a cleared area in the middle of the room, floating a couple of inches off the floor.

"The Witch Doctor isn't here now but maybe she left some clues," Anderson reasoned out loud, not tearing his gaze away from the windows. "Jacobs, you staying the cockpit incase we need to leave in a hurry. Phantom, you're with me."

Danny rose out of his seat reluctantly. Jacobs gave him a supportive grin and a pat on the back to shore him up. They had talked a little that morning during the approach to the castle when the other hunters unpacked weapons in the back. Danny admitted why he didn't like the castle and the reasons he had entered it in the first place, the story he didn't mention when he retold the tale of Pariah Dark.

In the back, Anders had everyone checking his or her personal gear. Their styles varied person to person but the weapons' purposes were identical: to damage any ghost that reared its ugly head during their search. Anderson nodded in approval and guns powered up and Smith's blades glowed with infused ectoplasm. With Danny standing in the doorway, he nodded to himself one last time before telling the humans to put on their suits.

"Ya sure?" Smithy asked, her Texan accent sounding thick with surprise.

Townsend and Thorton also stared at their leader before opened the large crate marked 'Ecto-suits'. Different than the original Fenton Ectosuit, these were normal sized black jumpsuits with miles of slender tubing under the surface. At hip level a small, plastic box attached to the suit, filled with pure ectoplasm. When the wearer pressed a hidden button the miniature pump activated, filling the tubing with the ectoplasm. The Fentons invented the suits in the hopes that they could use them when exploring the ghost zone. That dream died shortly after their daughter's suicide attempt a couple of months before. Instead, they modified the suits they possessed to fit the humans that went on the expedition.

Normally humans had an advantage in the Ghost Zone. They phased thru objects like _they_ were the ghosts. Certain areas of the ghost zone could theoretically allow humans to interact with the environment, but that wasn't the case in the main portions of the zone. Anderson had worried that the Witch Doctor would try to use this to her advantage, especially after giving the children that potion found in the tube at the Schraeders' house.

Towns handed out the first suit and the next ten minutes were spent pulling on the jumpsuits and attaching weapons and other devices to track down ghosts in the area. Finally, the four humans stood, ready and anxious, by the hatch. Danny hovered near as Thor checked his suit one last time. On Anderson's signal the suits turned on. Four pairs of feet sunk into the speeder's floor, stopping only when they touched stone.

The hunters looked down in surprise. Smith lifted her foot and stomped down, sliding though the speeder's metal floor and striking the hidden stone. "I told you humans were the ghosts here," Danny exclaimed. "Humans go through ghost things. Ghosts go through human things."

"The ectoplasm's enough to let us through real world metal," Thorton elaborated. "I wonder if this would work in the human realm?"

"I don't think so," the halfa said. "Physics are a little different here."

"Ghosts know about physics?" Townsend asked.

"We have a job to do, people. Let's get going." Anders pushed past Thor and Smith and walked right thru the speeder wall.

"I love how cranky he is," Smith said sarcastically before following. The remaining hunters shared a glance before exiting. Danny took a useless breath before he too left the speeder.

Once outside Anderson split them into two teams. He sent Thor, Townsend and Smithy to search the walls and area near the doors and speeder. Smithy's hand covered a yawn and the three of them trooped over to the first pile of rubble. Anderson turned around and led Danny to the far end of the Throne Room, towards the Coffin of Forever Sleep. Passing past towering walls and debris, they climbed the stairs to the coffin. Danny floated around, looking for the clues he knew didn't exist as Anderson searched Dark's last resting place. As Anders continued to circle the platform, eyes solely fixed on the sarcophagus, the halfa gave up his half-hearted search.

"I wonder how they made this," Anderson mused as a gloved hand passed across the hieroglyphs. Danny sat a few steps below, chin resting on his hands. From his position he could see the speeder. Danny could also see Townsend, Thorton and Smith at the far end of the Throne Room examining the wall. Their suits let off a glow, creating green auras around the humans easily noticed at a distance.

Behind him Anders stepped away from the coffin and joined him on the steps. "Find anything?" the hunter asked as he sat down.

Danny shook his head.

"Now what?" The man next to him looked to Danny for an honest answer.

"I've heard the story of Pariah Dark once, so this might be wrong," Danny warned. "After the ancient ghosts trapped Dark in the Coffin of Forever Sleep, they destroyed the castle leaving only the rooms surrounding the Ghost King intact. What if parts of the castle remained intact, only not here? Does that make any sense?"

"It does, actually," Anderson mused out loud. "There isn't enough rubble around here to build an entire castle. A large section could have broken off and stayed in one piece."

"With the drift, it could be out of sight," Danny sighed.

"And in any direction," Anders finished. "We're back to square one."

"Couldn't we use the 'real world item detector'?" he had to ask.

"It wouldn't work. Whatever was in the witch's bottle we found masks real world items. I bet one of the reasons she used the potion was to hide the children from our detectors."

Their headsets crackled before Jacobs voice came over the link. "I'm getting weird readings in here, Anderson. The RWI Detector is picking up multiple _somethings_ nearby."

"Do you have any more information?" Anderson asked, even as Danny stood up, a bad feeling crawling over his skin. Silence filtered across the comm. For a couple of seconds before Jacobs responded.

"Whatever it is, it's at both ends of the Throne Room."

The air around Danny and Anderson froze. Anders stood up and cocked a silver ectogun while the strap remained on his shoulder, the trim glowing an evil red. A wisp of blue smoke curled past Danny's lips as his right hand glowed with energy. Stones cracked to their left, crevices opening to darkness. Both Anderson and Danny shifted their aim to the wall. For a brief second, red eyes glowed from the shadow.

Snarls came from around them but it was the wall behind them that exploded, pelting them with stones. Before they could completely turn around the things were on them. Waist height and dirty gray, they looked like little demons, gremlins out of medieval literature. They were all claws and their overlarge mouths gaped and grinned even as they hit both ghost and human. Anderson ducked long enough to activate his comm.

"Jacobs, lift off," Anderson yelled into his headset. The speeders engines glowed and it rose off the ground. It took approximately six seconds for the speeder's engines to kick in and allow for movement. Only three seconds into that black webbing erupted around the speeder, dragging it down the ground. The wall next to the speeder collapsed, covering it entirely with rubble and trapping Jacobs inside. The dust from the fallen wall spread across the room, creating a dirty fog that hid Anderson and Danny from everyone else.

Swearing, Anders hit a button on his hip, turning off the ecto-suit even as he aimed the large gun, red light gleaming on the sides as it powered up. He held his ground until a gremlin punched him, deformed fist somehow connecting with the hunter, when any normal ghost would have slide through the human. Anderson flew past Danny, skidding to a stop too close to the broken edge. Danny fired a blast, throwing the gremlin over the side.

"We've got to get to the ground," the half ghost yelled, the snarls of the gremlins trying to drown him out. The human nodded before hoisting his gun. A spray of red blasts drove the creatures back since the human immunity to ghosts failed already. Danny hovered and fired as Anders ran under him and down the steps. He watched until something slammed into him from behind. Little claws scratched his hip, forcing Danny to phase out and throw a blast into the foul thing's stomach. Forcing back a disgusted shudder, he was thankful that the attacks were purely physical. The little demon spawn didn't seem to have flying or ghost powers, but damn could they jump.

Danny floated up as four of the gremlins grouped together, each grin identical and showing off a horrendous amount of jagged teeth. They rushed him at once. Phantom barely had enough time to raise his hands and the creatures bounced off his hastily formed dome shield. He dropped the shield and swept his hand sideways, creating an arc of green energy, holding off the horde so he could make it to Anderson's side. He continued to float a couple of feet off the ground as the hunter fired again and again, the air filled with red pulses and Danny's green beams.

One little devil snuck through their defense and jumped, latching onto Danny's boot with his teeth. Letting out a horrified yell, he kicked out with his free foot, catching the thing in the face. The teeth tore into his boot, leaving small gashes when it let go. Seeing the bloodthirsty smile directed at him, Danny didn't hold back. His next blast was so bright it flashed white as it hit. The thing screamed before exploding apart, showering the halfa with dust and ectoplasm.

He went intangible to pass the demons and stpped at the exhibition leader's side. "Does that thing always pulse or can you set it on a continuous beam?" he asked as he knocked back a persistent gremlin.

"It can do a beam, it just gets hot really quick," Anderson said, sparing a glance for Phantom, surprised to see a feral grin on the so far docile ghost.

"Do it. Enough energy and these things burst apart like a piñata at a birthday party." A grim nod and clicks were Danny's only warning before the fireworks started. After Anders destroyed two of the gremlins, he turned away, concentrating to produce the strong white energy blasts. Evan as they destroyed the gremlins, they slowly backed up to the buried speeder. As they neared, hey could hear the rock settle and the whine of the buried engines.

Taking out his fifth gray demon, Danny couldn't help but smirk. 'Bam'…another one disintegrated and only two creatures remained, crouched just out of point blank range. Anderson's gun whined as it powered up for another shot and Danny let energy form around his gloves, each aiming for the last of the demons.

Then indescribable pain hit Danny and he cried out, dropping to the ground seconds away from blasting the gremlin. The pain and wrongness tore him mentally apart and almost knocked him unconscious. Outside awareness coming back, he could hear Anderson call his name. Two dust clouds indicated what happened to the gremlins while he was filled with the psychological pain. Arms shaking, he pushed himself up, stomach churning for whatever he felt just a minute before.

"Kid, get up!" Anderson ordered.

"Oh, he doesn't have to stand on my account," an accented voice said from to the direction of the speeder. Danny staggered to his feet. The Witch Doctor stood only feet away with an evil glint in her eyes. Behind her, half a dozen gremlins crouched in anticipation. She lifted a hand and lazily pointed to hunter and ghost. With blinding speed, they ran and grabbed Danny and Anderson, pulling them in front of Nuodov. She looked just like the pictures, white hair strung with colored beads. The bright colors of her skirt stood out against a faded shawl and linen shirt. The dust in the air coated her skin, making it a lighter purple. Her red eyes crinkled as she smiled, not a pleasant sight.

"The ghost child and the great hunter, working side by side. A pity I have to end this before you try to take my children." She ghosted a hand along Anders' jaw. He tried to bite her, earning him a laugh fro the good doctor and a punch from one of the creatures holding him.

"Leave him alone," Danny snarled out, trying to break the grip of the gremlins holding him.

"Oh, how could I forget you? You are such a unique little ghost." She moved to the struggling half, grinning down at his distress. "Though I can't see why you are so special." She gripped his chin with her claw like nails, turning his head from side to side, inspecting him.

Danny waited until she turned away. His hands lit up with energy and his captors became twin dust clouds. He lunged, tackling the ghost to ground, pummeling her with glowing fists before she kicked him off. He jumped into the air, blasting away with his ectobeams. She brought up a hand, a shimmering shield absorbing the hits.

He fired twice more and then Nuodov retaliated. The shield dissolved before a ruby blast threw him to the ground. He stood only to find the Witch Doctor standing too close. She grabbed his shoulder and agony erupted in his abdomen. His eyes grew wide and he had to grab the other ghost's arms so he could stay upright. That evil grin beamed down at him as she roughly pulled the knife out of his stomach. She held up the knife for him to see, the wicked blade dripping ectoplasm. Danny slipped down to his knees in shock.

"No…" he whispered, his voice failing him. He looked down to see green blood covering his jumpsuit and his glove as he pressed a hand against the wound.

"Phantom!"

A crimson blast caught the Witch Doctor by surprise, driving her away from Danny. Anderson hadn't wasted time when Danny first attacked the doctor. He broke free of his captors, vaporizing them and the two spare gremlins. The last one showered dust and the air cleared right before Nuodov plunged her sacrificial knife into Phantom's unprotected abdomen. Training kick in and before he could mentally comprehend the scene, Anders shot her and took up a position in front of Danny, protecting the fallen ghost.

"Stay back," he ordered even as the woman floated off the ground. Her eyes flared in anger. This time she didn't bother with fancy ghost powers or hidden weapons. She flew straight at the hunter, hitting him over and over. Anders fought right back. They broke apart, human gasping and the ghost looking worse for wear.

"Why are you protecting him?" she asked, confused. "I've watched you. You hate him."

Anderson ground his teeth before growling out, "He may be a lifeless ghost but he's trying to help and I'll be damned to let a little thing like the lack of a pulse stop us from destroying you and rescuing the children. I'm not letting you have him."

Nuodov stared at him, face twisting with bloodlust and anger. "You won't give up and leave, will you?" Again she grabbed Anderson and jerking him forward so they were face-to-face, Anders' gun slipping out of his hand dropping to the floor.

"I haven't demonstrated my greatest power yet for the two of you. I'll tell you what I named it." She leaved close to Anderson's ear as she stared right at Danny kneeling only feet behind the hunter. "My Soul Shredder," her eyes turned pure black and the air vibrated.

Danny collapsed as the agony and wrongness returned. He wretched, sickened by what he felt. A dull thud sounded next to his head. Looking up, Anderson's body lay inches from his face.

"Anders," he cried out, tears forming in his eyes. The man lay limp, face turned towards his, his eyes closed and skin deathly pale. Danny crawled over, and once he was close enough, he shook the man's shoulder.

"Wake up, Anders," he whispered brokenly, tears falling freely down his face. The man never responded.

"You Bitch!" Danny shrieked, somehow surging to his feet. That sick look of pleasure still covered her face and he lost it. Stepping over Anderson's body, he _screamed_. The shockwaves of his wail threw the woman into the broken wall she originally brought down onto the speeder.

Staggering to her feet, red energy gathered around Nuodov's hand. Not giving her the chance to attack, he let out another short wail. This time as she hit the wall, he dropped to his hands and knees. He felt rings pass over him, black hair and red blood the only visible changes. Quickly he changed back and rose to his feet the same time the Witch Doctor did.

"We can do this all day if you want," he said with more confidence than he felt. Dazed, the doctor shook her head. With effort, she call the handful of surviving gremlins and with a flash they disappeared. Danny collapsed next to the fallen hunter, even as two pairs of feet rushed over.

"Phantom…Danny! Answer me," a woman frantically shouted. He opened his eyes to see Smithy over him.

"Smith…" his voice the softest yet.

"You have to get up," she sounded frantic. "We need to unbury the speeder before that bitch returns."

"Help me stand," he ordered faintly.

She grabbed him and slung his arm over her shoulders. They hobbled to the exposed corner of the speeder and the black webbing encasing it. Reaching out with his non-bloody hand, small rings appeared around his wrist and transformed his hand human. Passing through rocks and a gap in the webbing, he turned the entire speeder intangible. The web and rubble passed harmlessly through. With incredible effort, the rings receded, leaving him in ghost mode as his body completely gave out.

Barely conscious, Smith dragged him into the speeder. "Help Thor," she ordered a concerned Jacobs as she lifted Danny into a bunk. He could only lie there as Smith, Thor and Jacobs carried in Townsend and then Anderson's body. Thor stayed by Danny as the other two mobile hunters ran to the cockpit.

"Where to," Jacobs tight voice echoed back to Thor and Phantom.

"Any direction," Smithy responded. "Keep making random turns until we find a door big enough for the speeder to fit through." With the orders given, even as Danny's eyes closed in pain and Thor put pressure on the abdominal wound, the speeder fled Dark's Castle, heading deep into the ghost zone.

* * *

R&R 

_AN: Eep…hides._

_**Thanks to**: Arabic Blessing, Sasia93, Nobody Famous, Quacked Lurker, Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet, Tetsukon, and teenyugiohpotterphantom._

_Edited March 21st, 2007 - now it's one yell of pain and two wails instead of three screams._


	4. Saturday Evening after the Attack

**The Witch Doctor Incident  
**_By: Sqweakie the Wonder Mouse_

**AN: …peaks out from under her rock… 'You guys actually liked Anders…I'm gonna have to find a bigger rock'…ducks back under.**

Some of you guys had excellent questions in the reviews. I went back and edited the past three chapters. I suggest you guys atleast look at the first one. I know what the hunters look like but I forgot to write descriptions. Just slap me if I write something that either comes out of left field or doesn't make, I sometimes forget what I've told you guys and what's still in my head. There are descriptions of all the hunters in the first chapter. The other big change is in chapter three. Instead of three screams it is now one yell of pain and two short wails.

The Soul Shredder: Oops, I knew I heard that name before and though it sounded cool but I couldn't remember where I heard it. I forgot it was the Fright Knight's attack/sword. The name's staying but WD's attack does something a little different, a little more literal than Fright Knight's.

Theory of the Ghost Zone: _'If Danny loses that much power and then consciousness, won't he detransform?'  
_The short answer is not in the Ghost Zone. If you are curious about the full answer I'm going to post it on my author's bio under 'Artistic License'.

_**

* * *

**_

**Chapter Four**

_January 14th, 2007  
Saturday Evening_

"Phantom…Danny…You have to keep your eyes open. Come on… That's my boy. Focus on my face…"

It took every once of will power to follow Thor's directions. Tired green eyes watched the human sweat and worry above him.

"The bleeding isn't stopping. I've been holding pressure for an hour and it isn't stopping. I'm going to have to stitch up your abdomen. Open your eyes! Danny…now!"

Again the green eyes blinked open to watch a panicking Thor.

"I need you to hold the towel while I get things ready. Press harder!" he ordered.

"Are you ok Thor?" he asked

"Oh god. How can you ask that?" hysteria coming through. "She won, the Witch Doctor beat us. I'm hurt, you could be bleeding to a second death and Anderson and Towns…"

"Are dead," Danny finished, guilt pressing heavily.

"No, they are not dead," the hunter said sharply. "They are breathing and both have pulses."

"But they're _gone_. I felt it. Whatever she did, they're gone."

"Danny…Lets just concentrate on patching you up. We will worry about everything else after." He pulled at the rips in Danny's outfit, trying to look at the various cuts and scrapes. "I can't see a bloody thing. We need to get that jumpsuit off so I can see the damage."

Danny nodded and, with Thorton's help, he found the zipper and pulled it down. Thor's eyes widened as the halfa pulled off his gloves and (with considerable help) peeled off the top half of the suit. Underneath tattered Nomex a normal black T-shirt appeared, perfect, undamaged and unstained by his ectoplasmic blood.

Only when the hunter pushed up the shirt could they see the stab wound oozing pseudo blood. Pulling off the rest of the ruined jumpsuit revealed dark jeans and black socks. The jumpsuit landed in a tattered, bloody heap on the floor as Thorton began to work.

"I want you to stay awake," he said even as he prepped his stomach, still frantic and worried.

"I'm so tired," he mumbled.

"I know, kid. Would you like to learn something new?" Thorton asked, knowing from past experience that Phantom was very inquisitive.

Curiosity forced his eyes open, giving him a small burst of energy. "What are you going to teach me?"

"I'm going to teach you the proper way to stitch up a wound. You need to pay close attention and listen to everything I say…and watch. I'll explain as I go." Carefully the hunter worked, improvising glowing Fenton Fishing Line for thread, wiping away the green blood that trickled out from the steadily closing cut. He finished without fanfare, Danny's eyes following every movement. By some small miracle, the knife wound turned out to be the only cut needing stitching. All the scrapes and marks caused by the gremlins scabbed over and purplish-green bruising tattooed his torso.

It was about this time that Smithy left the cockpit to check on them. The engines wound down as she entered the hold, stopping short when she saw Danny lying on the bunk, stunned for some unvoiced reason.

"Did we stop?" Thor asked. "Janet?" The woman shook her head, breaking out of her daze.

"What?"

"The engines are off, is there a problem?" he asked in concern.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "We finally found a door. It led to a forested area but there is plenty of room between the trees so we decided to stop here."

"Janet, I need you to dig in the farthest right refrigerated compartment. We have a couple bags of pure ectoplasm in there and I don't really want to stand if I don't need to."

"What for?" she asked even as she made her way to the back.

"I want to try a 'blood' transfusion. The kid here lost a lot of ectoplasm."

She pulled open the door in the back corner. "Thor, we've got a slight problem," she said while her head was stuck into the fridge. The hunter hobbled over and looked over her shoulder.

"Thor, what is it?" Danny asked, a little too weak to make the trip across the cargo area.

"The rocks that crushed this corner of the speeder also ruptured the compartment." He reached inside before turning and showing Danny his ecto-covered fingers. "There is nothing left we can use."

"Maybe there's something stashed in one of the other compartments," Janet said optimistically. She pulled open the next refrigerated space. "Human blood… human blood…wait. This might work." She pulled out a bag, the contents a swirling mix of dark red and ecto green. She red the handwritten label out loud. "The mix?" she asked Thor.

"A Fenton brainchild," he explained. "It's human blood, O neg, infused with ectoplasm. This is the experimental stuff for humans testing with abnormally high ecto levels, like their children."

"Use it," Danny ordered from his bed.

"Not a chance!" Thor told him. "We have no idea what human blood will do to a ghost. It may work or your 'body' may reject all of it. That's not counting the side effects we can only begin to speculate about."

Danny stared at the curved ceiling, the green light of the ghost zone filtering through the skylight windows. He knew the mix would work, perfect for his half-human half-ghost body. As he lay there he knew he was a half a step from fainting, possibly turning back human.

"If I don't get this transfusion, what will happen?" he asked, looking Thor straight in the eye.

Thor looked away from both Phantom and Smith, his eyes trained towards the front of the speeder and his voice impossibly soft but still loud enough for it to fill the area. "You still may disintegrate from the loss of the ectoplasm… a ghost's death."

He couldn't help it. His eyes teared up and he turned his face to the wall, body half curling on its side so he wouldn't have to look at the others. The thin mattress dipped as someone sat behind him, even as he contemplated telling them his secret so he wouldn't _die_.

"Danny," Janet's voice came from behind him. "It's your choice in the end. We can wait and see what happens or you can take the chance and go with the transfusion." She stayed beside him, a hand rubbing his shoulder in an act of comfort.

He rolled onto his back, a jerky nod confirming his decision, to receive the blood. Janet smiled and ruffled his hair gently. Thor looked grim but conceded, pulling out all the things he needed out of one of the cabinets.

"How are you going to do the transfusion?" Janet asked while Thor limped around.

"He has a venous structure similar to a human's," he said absentmindedly as he set everything out that he needed. "Janet, I need you to move." The huntress moved and disappeared into the cockpit as Thorton took a seat on the stool that he used when he stitched up Danny's stomach bare minutes before. "Now Danny, after I start the IV you won't be able to use your abilities. I don't want the catheter to phase out of your arm."

"I can do that," he nodded. "I just have one question first. Are you certified to do this? Actually, how do you know how to do any of this?"

"Curious little thing, aren't you," he commented with a small smile, the first positive emotion since this morning. "Before I became a ghost hunter, I worked as a nurse for years. That's how I know how to do 'all this'. That's also how I met Al."

"Who's Al?" Danny asked.

"Townsend," he said without looking up. He tied the tourniquet and started searching Danny's skin. "Albert is his first name."

"So how did you exactly meet?"

"I'll tell you in a second," Thor told him as he reached for the needle. "Here comes a sharp poke." Danny hissed a little as the needle went into the back of his left hand.

"Just relax you're hand. It's in. As to how I met Towns, he was hired to clear out a couple of pesky ghosts in an old wing of the hospital I was working in at the time. One of the bloody things slipped past him and went into a public area of the hospital. Townsend fell right in front of me. I just picked up his gun and stunned the bugger right between the eyes.

"Work was terrible at that point and when Al asked me to join in a couple of hunts I accepted. The rest is history." As he talked, Thor hooked up tubing to the IV and started a slow drip of the ecto/blood, the bag's contents still swirling hypnotically. The slim tubing leading from the bag to Danny's arm glowed green with red occasionally striping the ecto. Minutes slipped by as he laid there, Thor disappearing to the next bunk hidden by a metal cabinet. Though he couldn't see, Danny knew Anderson and Townsend lay in the beds he couldn't see, both comatose since hit with the Witch Doctor's 'Soul Shredder'.

Janet finally returned, face troubled. "Thor, get yourself cleaned up in the cockpit," she ordered. "Eric has one of the kits up there and can help."

"I have everything I need back here," he told her, slightly confused why she wanted him out of the cargo area.

"It's an excuse actually," the huntress admitted. "I really want you up there to check on Jacobs. He said he wanted to be alone for a while but I'd feel better if you went up there with him." Thor nodded at the logic and limped towards the front, the door closing behind him. Alone with the half ghost, the huntress wilted and collapsed on the stool by Danny's bed.

"Smith?" Danny asked.

"Janet," she interrupted. "We're long past formalities, kid. You can my first name if I can use yours. "

"Ok, Janet. What's the plan?"

"Right now we are going to hunker down here, rest up for a day or so, and then we'll go from there. But I don't want you worrying about that right now. I need you to rest and heal up, ok?"

"How is Jacobs doing?"

"Eric? He's still in shock… both of them in there, actually," she admitted. "Thor and Towns worked together for years and were close. Anderson," she shook her head at the name, "he's Eric's cousin. They spent a lot of time together growing up and since Eric returned to the states."

"I'm sorry."

"What for?" Smithy asked, confused. "Did you cast the attack. Danny, it's not your fault."

"It is," he whispered, the pain both physical and emotional. "I knew we shouldn't have stayed in the castle. I knew something wasn't right. What if I…"

"No 'what ifs' kid," she said fiercely, squeezing his shoulders gently. "Just concentrate on the now, not what could have happened." Tears of pain and frustration welled up in his eyes.

She gathered him in her arms, the tears falling faster. She rocked him back and forth, comforting him even as tears formed in her own eyes. She couldn't hide the flinch when they heard a fist strike a metal wall…Jacobs finding out that Anders wasn't waking up.

Danny cried harder at the heated voices from the cockpit and Janet's arms tightening around him. The Witch Doctor shredded more than souls in her attack. They were falling apart.

oOo

"God, he's just a kid!"

"We know that. His physical stature..."

"No, I mean if you got rid of the glow and the Vulcan blood, he's a normal kid. What are we doing? We have fifteen children missing and we brought another one along to fight."

"I know physically he's only fourteen or fifteen but mentally I don't think he's been one for a long time."

She paced back and forth in between the bunks, turning outside the tiny bathroom and stalking back to the cockpit door. Thor sat on an empty bunk looking worn out. Jacobs leaned against the doorframe of the cockpit entrance, dark emotions transforming his face to something a little more sinister.

"When I walked through the door after you patched him up, it hit me," she continued. "I wondered what his parents thought of him. He tries so hard to do things right and he doesn't give trust easily. It's like he's standing outside wanting to come in but he's afraid. Like he doesn't want to get too close…to get his heart broken again."

Thor sighed and responded, "the kid's more curious than a bag of kittens in spite of all that. You offer him to teach something, not for any nefarious purposes but just to learn and you've hooked him. He also makes up his own mind. You know there is no way he would head back towards Amity and leave us to face that woman, and I use that term loosely. He is going to stay and fight, just like the rest of us."

"Phantom's staying, Janet," Jacobs finally piped in. "Just give it a rest because ranting about it will not change anything."

"Oh, and slamming your fist into a metal wall can make all the difference?" She leaned in, almost nose to nose with Jacobs, anger clear on both sides.

"Stop it!" Thorton finally yelled to stop them. "Both of you are legal adults, act it. This is exactly what Nuodov wants. We're tearing ourselves apart and if that happens we won't be a threat to her. Why disable a couple members and leave the rest of us for any other reason?"

"Phantom's attack may have helped in that respect," Eric said, forcing his angry gaze away from Smith. "I don't know exactly what he did but it sent feedback and disrupted the live headset feeds I was monitoring in the speeder, trapped under those rocks. When the static cleared the witch was up against the wall and after the second time she retreated."

Janet picked up her pacing again. "We have to stick together. She probably expects us to limp back to the real world and lick our wounds before trying again. We can't give her the chance to set up another trap."

"Let's start back at Dark's castle. I may not be able to track the ghost, she hides her trail to well but I may be able to trace those little gray monsters. They showed up on the RWI detector, they may show again." Eric looked confident with his idea and Janet and Thor both nodded in agreement.

"Danny and I can rest up on the trip," Thor added. "Hopefully we will be up to fighting strength when we find her."

"What about Townsend and Anders?" Janet had to ask. "Is there a chance they'll wake up soon?"

Thor looked at the unmoving figures, shoulders drooping. "Their heart's beat, their lungs pull in O2 but I'm not getting any reactions to stimuli. Danny says they're 'gone'. They could be brain dead but I can't tell with the equipment we have onboard. That will have to wait until we get to a real hospital. The only way to tell is with a battery of tests...labwork, EEGs and even a Nuc Med scan."

"How can you be sure that they are 'gone' right now?" Jacobs demanded.

"Danny insists he _felt _it during her attack," Smithy said, pausing her pacing long enough to stroke the boy's hair. "Ghosts are more sensitive and have a better developed sixth sense. He's able to tell when a ghost is nearby, it is entirely possible he could sense their 'spirits' leaving."

"The kid ain't normal, even by ghost standards," Eric contemplated out loud. "You guys worked with him more than me or Anders. Do you get the feeling that there is more to him than most ghosts?"

"He's a 'layered' ghost, if you want to start there," Thor admitted. "Layered Ghosts are more complex than your normal toaster-possessing variety. Pulling at his suit I could see skin but when you pull off the suit a shirt formed in almost new condition, a new layer. He has to be the most complex, the most human-like ghost I've ever dealt with."

"And he knows so much of the human world," Janet stated. "Either he retained his human memories when he became a ghost or there is something else going on that he will not breathe a word about." They were surprised to see the British hunter flinch at the choice of words.

"Something else you want to add Willard?" Jacobs drawled out. Thor grimaced.

"He has a pulse." Janet stopped pacing and Eric straightened up.

"Come again?" she asked, eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"The night before we left, Anders had me try to get a full set of vitals on the kid because he was being that obsessive. Something about wanting a baseline on ghosts and some other nonsense, I don't know his exact reason. Started off with body temp and the like but when I was pressing against his neck I felt something. I could palpate a pulse on his neck. It's slow but it's real along with an exceptionally slow respiration rate. The kid freaked and told us we had to be wrong."

"That's impossible," Jacobs said with dead sincerity. "Ghosts are dead, pulseless creatures. We may have only scratched the surface of ghost biology but at least that fact is proven."

"And it's a mystery that will have to wait," Smithy interrupted. "It's been a freakin' horrible day and we all need our sleep. We're going to have to take shifts. Thor, sleep now…no arguments, no questions. Eric, do you want first or second watch?"

"I'll take the first one," he decided.

"Then I'll take it next," she said. "Thor, you'll get the last one. I just want to run another scan before turning in. Are you coming Eric?"

"Right behind you…" The two disappeared to the front, the cockpit door closing behind them.

Thor gingerly hopped off the bed and hobbled over to the boy. Phantom's bare hands had broken free of the cocoon of blankets. He traced a pattern along the web of scars on the ghost's right arm. The marks looked familiar but he couldn't figure out why. For all he knew, before Danny died he had taken care of the ghost as a patient. There was no possible way he could remember every case, every name and face so that could be why he looked so familiar.

Thor tucked the hands under the blanket, double checking the IV to make sure it continued to flow. He made a mental note to tell Eric to wake him up in a couple hours to change bags, replacing an empty one with a full unit of blood/ecto mix. Finally he let is hand rest gently under the boy's jaw, his pulse subtle but there.

As clocks struck midnight, the beginning of a new day, Willard Thorton did something he hadn't done in years.

He prayed.

_

* * *

R&R _

_Crap…that was short but that's where it will have to stop for today. My mom had an MRI and nothing's grown back so she doesn't have to see the surgeon for six months. She's very happy about that and she's doing great. Now it's time to go rock shopping for the next couple of chapters…_

_Thanks to: _Phantom-figure , Funkatron, Egyptian Ghost Kitty, Tetsukon, peppymint, Nobody Famous, Arabic Blessing , fan-girls2.0, Sasia93, Elvin Flame , magpie8spook, Quacked Lurker , Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet , fadedphantom, and Kya - The Mystical Tigeress.


	5. Monday January 16th, 2006

The Witch Doctor Incident  
_By Sqweakie the Wonder Mouse_

AN: Looks up from stocking the bomb shelter. ' _I'm just preparing for the next couple of chapters so don't get too worried yet. We're in the home stretch and you guys probably have an idea where this is heading. Enjoy the chapter while I prepare for the next one…' Muwahahahahaha…_

My mom is still doing great. She has a couple of appointments this week, one for her eye if I remember correctly but I can't remember what the other one is for. Everything is going good and she told me to give you guys a huge Thank You for all of your prayers and support.

* * *

**Chapter Five**

_Day 5 Monday January 16th, 2006_

Danny curled up on his bunk, a position becoming too familiar to Thor. A day and a half had passed since their loss at Pariah Dark's castle. Phantom's injuries crippled the team, the fact made worse by the loss of two of their members, Joseph Anderson and Albert Townsend. A third of their team laid unconscious, unnatural comas caused by the Witch Doctor. The next third, Phantom and himself, were injured. Smithy was also hurt but mobile, her injuries consisting of bruises littering her backside and a nasty cut down her cheek and neck. The only one healthy was their pilot, Jacobs, since he remained out of the fight, trapped in the speeder buried under the rubble of a stone wall.

Yelling came from the direction of the cockpit, Janet and Eric going at it again, as they fought about whether to leave the doubtful safety of the ghost forest or to venture out to search for Nuodov and the children. Danny flinched as a dull thud sounded when someone, probably Jacobs, hit a wall. They were destroying themselves from the inside out, tempers flaring and personalities clashing left and right.

Thor was just as guilty as the other two, loosing his cool more than once over little things. The only one not yelling was Danny. He just stayed distant, retreating farther into his shell as the hours went by. Physically, he was healing faster than a human and the ecto/blood mix didn't seem to cause any negative reactions. Mentally, Danny was just as messed up as the rest of them, his temperament defaulting to depression instead of anger like the humans.

"It's over! Anders and Towns might as well be dead, Phantom's out of commission and Thor is two steps behind him. We have to go back to the Real World."

Danny looked up, his eyes burning green. He shot off the bunk and headed for the cockpit. Instinctively, Thor limped after him and stopped dead in the doorway. Danny had Jacobs pinned to the wall, aura burning a bright white that lit up the space while the human struggled in his grip.

"So you're giving up!" Phantom yelled in his face. "We lost once so it's time to lay down and die. You want to go back to the safety of the real world and forget about fifteen children lost out there! You want to deny the sacrifices that Anderson and Townsend made fighting Nuodov?"

"No, that not what," he was interrupted when Danny slammed him against the wall again.

"Yes, we lost, but that doesn't mean that the fight is over. I have fought things that would scare you senseless. I have failed, multiple times, but I didn't give up. If you fall down once do you stay on the ground or do you get up again?

"Yes, we have no clue where the Witch is, no idea where to start and there is the distinct possibility that the children could be dead!" Everyone flinched at his cold voice. "But what we still have is hope! All those things could be true, emphasis on 'could'. But there is a chance that those ideas are wrong and we could still find the kids. We still have a chance so we still have _hope._"

With that he let go of Jacobs' shirt and floated to the ground, instantly turning from enraged ghost to a child.

"Don't give up that hope," he said and disappeared. Seconds later they could hear him land on his bunk, kicking the metal cabinet in frustration. Thor leaned against the wall just as stunned as Eric or Smithy.

"If we keep doing this she wins," Thor added his two cents.

Jacobs collapsed against the wall that only a minute before he was pinned to, hands scrubbing his face. "The kid's right," he finally admitted. "We have to go look for her."

"What about your idea a couple of nights ago, looking at Dark's Castle for clues… see if she left any hints." Janet's suggested after a time and both men nodded in agreement. "Okay. Jacobs, get us in the air within five minutes, no more stalling. I'm going to check on Danny."

Janet left the cockpit, her face tinged green by the ambient light of the ghost zone as she sat on Phantom's bunk. Thor just turned and watched her, not making a move to follow and allowing them some privacy.

Janet sat on the bunk and looked at the boy. Danny stared straight ahead, scooting towards the wall when she first approached. Sensing that he wasn't ready to talk yet, she pulled her feet up onto the bunk, stretching out her legs and resting her back against one of the cabinets in between each bunk.

Finally the boy leaned against her side and the huntress wrapper her arm around him to comfort him. Sometimes one could forget that the cocky little ghost that helped her and her husband hunt on occasion was a fragile teenager underneath. Before this whole mess, her and Brian were the only ones able to break through the shell the boy built around himself and see his true self and the emotions that he hid. She knew that the boy had friends and the relationship he had with the Red Hunter seemed a little more that friendly, as much as he tried to deny it while blushing.

He had those friends but 'family' was something unattainable for the ghost. He let it slip that once upon a time he had a family, parents and a sister, but they were 'unreachable'. She knew that she couldn't replace what he loss but she tried to give him a second home. They told him over and over he was welcome to stay, permanently if he wanted. He would stop for a couple of days, easily merging with the living members of her family, laughing and helping out like the kids.

Then there would be those rare times that she would wake up in the middle of the night. Something urged her to go downstairs and she could find Danny sitting on the couch, looking so lost and so incredibly human. She would sit next to him without a word. He remained next to her, sitting too stiffly to be comfortable. Eventually he would sag next to her, leaning on her shoulder and tears would slip down his face.

Now was one of those times. Even as the speeder roared to life and the engines pushed them out of the forest and back to the dangers of the ghost zone, Danny leaned against her, quiet tears spilling down his face. Even if she never found out why he cried, even if he never confided in her, she was there for him lending him a shoulder to cry on so he wouldn't be alone. She could at least do that for him.

"We can't give up," he whispered while she started to rock him back and forth.

"We're not," she said fiercely as she tightened her grasp on his shoulders. "We're not."

oOo

Thor poked his head out of the cockpit before deciding to walk into the hold. Danny and Janet remained in the same positions, woman sitting up while the ghost leaned against her. They both looked at his approach, eyes solemn after the fight in the cockpit just a bare hour before. "We're here. Do you want to come up front?"

Smithy looked at the ghost who in turn nodded. She slid off the bed first and Danny followed, black socks gently touching the floor. The three made their way to the front where Jacobs sat in the pilot seat absorbed in his task. The hunters dropped into the open seats while Danny floated up, sitting Indian style about two feet above and behind the pilot.

Ahead in the parting mists Dark's castle appeared. Jacobs and Smithy started flicking switches and screens lit up. "Right now we're scanning with everything we've got: RWI Detector, ecto-signatures, heat sensors, and a couple of things Jack really didn't explain."

Jacobs trained his attention on the multitude of switches, gauges, and screens, searching fro the tiniest blip or sign, faded green eyes bloodshot from the lack of sleep. Janet Smith leaned back in her chair. Her face looked pinched, skin pale under the freckles, Danny not looking much better. Thor could only imaging how rough he looked since the stress and lack of sleep took a toll on him too. Minutes crept by as every one waited for a result, any result from the sensors and scans.

"I think I found the trail," Eric said softly, eyes unblinking and focused on a screen to the left, a simple black background with green specks. The other three surrounded his chair, all focused on the line marked by his finger.

"The powder from the gremlins," Danny gasped, eyes following a tendril of gray winding out of the castle along the path Jacobs found inching deeper into the zone.

"She 'called' the gremlins," Janet said, excitement creeping into her voice. "Nuodov made a hand gesture, right Danny? The ones you and Anders destroyed are following her. She left us a trail of bread crumbs." For the first time since entering the ghost portal they had a chance of finding Nuodov and rescuing the children, they had the hope that Danny promised.

"Follow it," Danny ordered.

"How do we know it's not a trap?" Thor asked warily.

"We don't," admitted Janet. "But it's our best lead. Do you have any other ideas?"

"No," he said softly.

Jacobs angled the speeder to run parallel with the trail, a glittering silver path leading around towards the nearest edge of unexplored space of the ghost zone.

The trail through the zone thinned, a fading path that disappeared into the black and green. On Eric's screen the way lit up with dazzling intensity and the signal only grew brighter the longer they followed it.

"So what's the plan?" Thor asked. Janet bit her lip and Jacobs flanked in her direction.

"Jacobs and I suit up and search while you and Danny wait in the speeder." Protests rose all around her.

"You're hurt, both of you," she yelled over the noise. "You'll just slow us down."

"Not if Thor and I work together," Danny told her, surprising Thor more than anyone else. He figured that he alone would be left behind, unable to go faster than a limp.

"What do you mean?" Eric demanded while their leader gaped.

"You and Jacobs head out on your own first. We." He motioned to himself and Thorton, "wait a little while and then we head out. Whichever group finds the children first radios the others and they either distract Nuodov or come to help the first group."

"Makes sense," Eric agreed. "And if by chance they se us come in either they will follow the first group or they will go after the speeder where the second group will be waiting for them."

"Okay, we'll go with that. Danny, can you fly the speeder?"

He smiled and perked up. Jacobs slid out of the seat and Phantom replaced him. The humans disappeared into the back to pull on the black ectosuits and strap on their weapons. When they made their way back into the cockpit Thor dropped into the passenger seat dangling a pair of white boots, Danny's boots, in his hand.

"I figured you wouldn't want to end up in a fight wearing only your socks."

Danny took them with a small smile and thanks. He waved his hand and the white turned to a steel gray and the rips sealed over on the boot one of the gremlins chewed through. He pulled on the footwear and glanced to see Thor's dumfounded look.

"I'm too tired to try to fix the entire jumpsuit so this will have to do," he explained.

"But…how did you…never mind, I'll ask later." Thor sounded exasperated but he didn't ask. Janet laughed before becoming serious.

"On my signal turn on your suits. At the same time, Danny, I want you to flip the switch marked 'EEPFE' next to your left hand. Ready? Three…Two…One…Now!"

A hum filled the cockpit as green auras formed around the three humans. They looked around but nothing seemed different or out of place.

"What did that do?" Phantom asked, hand dropping away from the switch.

" 'That' temporarily infuses the speeder with ectoplasm," Smithy explained. "EEPFE actually stands for Electro-Ectoplasmic Field Emitter. Any sensors would think we were a weak ghost or a bit of semisolid ectoplasm. It won't fool the naked eye but it will hide us at a distance and fool any passive sensors she might have."

"Okay. I'll go with that." The boy settled in his chair as the others strapped into their seats. As they flew Janet and Jacobs fleshed out the plan, trying to guess every scenario possible while Danny and Thor added their ideas.

Jacobs noticed the lone chunk of rock first. Like an island in an ocean it stood alone, probably only four feet across and a single wooden pole rose off its surface, beads clinking gently in the wind of the ghost zone's night.

"I've seen those not far from the Fenton Portal and Dark's Castle," he said, waving with a free hand as he pushed the speeder a little farther from the object.

"What color were the beads?" Janet asked as she fiddled with one of the numerous screens, zooming in.

"They glowed…red, I think."

"And I bet those beads on the pole would have glowed red again if we passed it without the ectoplasmic field."

"That's how she knew we were in the castle." Thor stared accusingly at the seemingly innocent stick, green beads waving and twirling as they passed. Beyond the marker rocks and the ever present green mist wove a gauzy veil around the path they followed.

Maneuvering around and extra large portion of earth, he gasped and a whispered curse slipped past Jacobs' lips. Just beyond the rock a thin veil of fog wrapped around the ruins of a castle. Dark walls fell away with jagged edges. Curtained windows spilled slivers of light across the stone courtyard. Inch for inch, the ruins match Pariah Dark's Castle.

No words broke the silence in the cockpit. Danny's hands glided across the controls easing them closer to the half derelict fortress. Janet appeared between them, pointing her finger at a dark nook just big enough to set the speeder.

Heading towards the darkened part of the courtyard, they landed well away from the lit windows. A half-broken wall covered them while creating a dark niche. Danny flipped off the dashboard lights leaving the cockpit awash in the hunters' green light that even tinged Danny's normally white aura. Silently Janet motioned towards the cargo area. The last guns were snatched out of a cabinet. Thor pressed a hidden button next to two of the bunks. A shimmering shield formed and covered Anders and Towns, protecting them until someone could retrieve the speeder.

Janet reached over and adjusted Danny's headset, brushing hair out of the camera's line of sight. On impulse, she grabbed the boy in a hug. Eric coughed and looked away as she pulled away leaving her hands on the boy's shoulders. "Be careful kid."

"I will if you will," Danny replied. The woman laughed and hugged him one last time. She then extended her hand towards Thor. He reached out and shook it while whispering good luck.

Eric replaced Janet, shaking their hands solemnly in goodbye.

Janet and Eric eased out the partially opened door, making no noise as they stepped out. Thorton hit a button and the door slid silently into place. He stood at the small window inset into the door. Worried, he watched the first two hunters until they entered a doorway and disappeared from sight.

While he waited in the cargo hold, Danny moved into the cockpit invisibly so he could observe the sensors and keep watch out the windshield. As the speeder approached the castle only a couple 'real world' bogeys tripped their sensors. Ecto-signatures, on the other hand, filled the area. Many signals registered low in energy, either weak ghosts or some of the semisolid ecto that wove through the debris field around the castle. The stronger signals concentrated in two separate areas. The signatures remained stationary as they drew nearer and at the time Jacobs guessed that one of the two groups contained the children.

After an eternity Phantom appeared at his side.

"It's time," he stated, his voice just above a whisper. Thor nodded and triggered the door. The door slid to the side allowing the cool wind of the ghost zone to tear at their hair and the ghost's loose shirt. Mechanically, his fingers tightened around his gun, bring it up to fire at the first hit of trouble.

He stepped down to the ground and Danny stayed close enough to the door to reach through and trigger the door closed, his hand slipping out before the door could crush it. Making sure that the boy still had all five fingers, the pair made their way to the same entrance Smithy and Jacobs used before. Going down the first corridor, they didn't speak until they reached the first branch were the hallway turned left and right.

"So which way?" the ghost asked looking at the two very separate paths. Since their radios stayed silent, Thor knew that the others had not found the children or trouble, yet.

"Eric said that at the first intersection they would take a right and head for the far group."

"So if they took a right then we head left," Danny guessed hesitantly. They set off down the corridor, both tensely searching for clues. Thor took a moment to glance down at the detector in his hand. The range remained shorter that the speeder's sensors but it was all he could carry one handed since he clutched the largest ecto-gun in his right. Phantom hovered next to him, fingertips gliding along the left-hand wall.

"Hold on," he said as he stopped next to a blank portion of the wall. Thor watched with interest as the boy's hand turned a transparent blue and pressed against the blocks.

"I can't phase through it," he said to himself but Thor overheard.

"Is that going to be a problem?"

"It could," the ghost confessed. "This is definitely the same stuff Dark's Castle is built from. I couldn't phase through the walls there either."

"So that's why the gremlins busted through the walls there instead of passing through?"

"Those things aren't even real ghosts as much as I can tell. They lack the basics," he floated off, leaving Thor jogging to keep up.

"Basics?" the hunter asked as they continued down the hallway, turning right when the intersection they came to was partially collapsed leaving them only one way to travel.

"Basic ghost powers," Danny elaborated. "The normal stuff like flight, intangibility, invisibility, and overshadowing. The overshadowing might not be a real basic ability but I've seen all kinds of ghosts use it."

After that they dropped into silence. The two made their way along darkened hallways. Occasionally torches or wooden doors broke up the blank walls the deeper they headed into the castle. He glanced down at the sense from time to time to make sure they traveled in the right direction while his gun stayed trained ahead. Danny also held his hands away from his body, raising his palms when they approached each turn, leading around the corners and up stairs while Thor dropped behind and followed.

Danny paused when he first heard the noise and Thor stopped just a half a step behind him. Up ahead a wisp of blue smoke twirled around in the empty corridor. A chitterling noise came from its direction. It took no notice, whispering to itself as they approached.

A small puff of blue slipped past Phantom's lips when Thor glanced at the boy. They both tensed when the little creature spun around and headed in their direction. First it darted around Danny, racing around his feet and legs. Seeming to tire of this, it began to float around Thor, not attacking…just playing.

The wisp curled around his shoulder and whispered in his ear, "They're not here…turn back…turn back…"

Thor ignored the small voice as he started farther down the hallway. Danny followed, his boots adding quiet footsteps to the hunters heavier tread and the blue creatures constant murmuring. They made it halfway down the corridor before the hunter started to relax, thinking the Whisper was just a distraction. While it continued its twirling and muttering, Danny looked nervous. He looked round and round, literally turning around to watch their backs.

"We're almost there," Thor said, trying to soothe the boy. They made it another ten feet before it all went south. The Whisper grew bored circling Danny's head so it made it's way back to Thor.

"Too late," it whispered, wrapping around Thor's ankles before darting down the hallway into a block darker than the rest at the end. A deep rumble surrounded the human and ghost standing in the middle of a black corridor. No doors broke the walls and the ceiling started to shift and break apart.

"Run!" Danny yelled but Thor froze. Dust and small rocks dropped from above but he couldn't move, feet rooted in place and horror flooding his mind. Phantom hit his back, propelling him into motion. They ran towards the nearest end of the hall. It looked too far to reach and as the first large rock crashed to the floor he _knew_ they would never reach safety.

Danny grabbed his back, pulling at his suit causing him to stumble. He spun around as the ceiling collapsed around them and a flash of light illuminated every individual stone.

He caught a glimpse of wide blue eyes before everything turned black.

_**

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Evil Grin… **_

_Thanks to: Shades-of-Pink , Sasia93, Nobody Famous , Tetsukon, DX fanatic, Phantom figure, Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet, peppymint, uula, fan-girls2.0 , Elvin Flame , Arabic Blessing , Arabic Blessing , MiaRose 156 , Twilight-Phantom66 , and Shadewolf7._

_Double thanks to Gmasangel, I love the enthusiasm. _

_Big thanks to LokiWaterDraca. I don't know if you're reading this story but huge thanks for the pick me up about people who's only goal in life is being a complete and utter assholes._

_I might go back and revamp this in a week or two. Just tell me what you think…_


	6. Monday Night in the WD's Castle

**The Witch Doctor Incident  
**_By Sqweakie the Wonder Mouse_

Deep in the bomb shelter… muted sounds emerge… that sound like…the pokemon theme…and the author looks up guiltily…

_Sorry, had some writer's block and then my son got a Nintendo DS. When I was buying him games I picked up a copy of Pokemon Diamond for myself…umm…it sorta ate up my free time I allotted to writing and yes, my son plays pokemon with me too. Sorry!!_

_The Mom Update: She's doing great! She finally got to get her hair cut for the first time in months, the last part they shaved to put in a permanent shunt finally grew out. Never let a brain surgeon do you're hair, they are wonderful at surgery but suck as hair dressers. She's also back to work. It's only a couple days a week and she's dead tired afterwards but she's getting out is doing good._

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Chapter Six _**– _The Witch Doctor's Castle_

Thor ignored the small voice as he started farther down the hallway. Danny followed, his boots adding quiet footsteps to the hunters heavier tread and the blue creatures constant murmuring. They made it halfway down the corridor before the hunter started to relax, thinking the Whisper was just a distraction. While it continued its twirling and muttering, Danny looked nervous. He looked round and round, literally turning around to watch their backs.

"We're almost there," Thor said, trying to soothe the boy. They made it another ten feet before it all went south. The Whisper grew bored circling Danny's head so it made it's way back to Thor.

"Too late," it whispered, wrapping around Thor's ankles before darting down the hallway into a block darker than the rest at the end. A deep rumble surrounded the human and ghost standing in the middle of a black corridor. No doors broke the walls and the ceiling started to shift and break apart.

"Run!" Danny yelled but Thor froze, dust and small rocks dropped from above. He hit Thor's back, propelling him into motion. They ran towards the nearest end of the hall. It looked too far to reach and as the first large rock crashed to the floor he _knew_ they would never reach safety.

He grabbed Thor's back, pulling at his suit causing him to stumble. The hunter spun around as the ceiling collapsed around them and a flash of light illuminated every individual stone.

He caught a glimpse of frightened brown eyes before everything turned black…

He took a steadying breath, ignoring the claustrophobia clawing inside his skin as ceiling fragments settled and silence suffocated him. Instead, he reached up and found Thor's shoulder. Sensing the human's panic, Danny dragged his hand down the man's arm until he could grasp the shaking fingers and led him out of the debris. Step by step he pulled the man through solid darkness and stone.

They broke from the trap and Danny took his first real breath in six days. His heart pounded with excess adrenaline as he continued to pull the hunter into the light of the torches. He turned away just as Thor's head broke through the rocks and continued to pull him out of the hallway and into a solid wall. On the other side a disused room lit by a single sputtering torch offered them a temporary sanctuary from anyone alerted by the trap.

Danny carefully let go and turned around to face Thorton. The man looked dazed, shock freezing him as he stood in his khakis and green shirt, the ectosuit he originally wore laying under a couple tons of rock.

"You…you… you're… Danny?" he stuttered, mouth gaping.

Phantom nodded shyly, strands of black hair falling across his forehead. His eyes drifting down to the dark blue t-shirt over a long sleeve white shirt, to his favorite faded jeans and grey tennis shoes. If he kept his attention on Thor instead of his clothes he wouldn't have missed the man's eyes widening and his face paling to a new shade of white.

Finally Thor reached out, hands gently touching the half-ghost's shoulders, testing to see if he was real. Then the hands traveled to his face, lifting his chin so Thor could peer straight into the icy blue eyes the boy inherited from his grandmother. One hand stayed on his face while the other dropped to his neck, fingers pressed just hard enough to feel his pulse and each hesitant breath the boy took.

"This is my human form," Danny said quietly, trying to figure out what Thor would do next.

The hunter didn't respond. Instead he continued to study the teen, comparing the human boy to the ghost he known for months. Quietly he let go of his face and instead took Danny's right arm, still without speaking. Fingers traced the spider web of scars running up his forearm before he gasped and the brown gaze shot up.

"You're Jack and Maddie's son!" he said, sounding horrified.

He pulled out of Thor's grip and put some distance between the two of them. He turned around, hand rubbing his scarred wrist trying to get rid of the feeling of the man's grip. He could guess that the wheels in the man's head were turning a mile a minute putting everything he ever knew about Danny Phantom with the scant knowledge of the Fentons' estranged son.

"Do they…"

"No, they don't know," he admitted, anticipating the man's next question.

"I think I need to sit down," Thor said, two seconds before his legs gave out and he dropped to the floor. Danny turned back as the man buried his face in his hands.

"Are you okay?" Phantom asked, his voice without the telltale echo distorting it. Thor's reaction caught him by surprise. The man laughed, slightly hysterical, without looking up at the teen.

"Oh gosh, we were arguing a couple nights ago about how human you acted. We never guessed you were 'this' human."

"No one was supposed to know," he informed the older man, gracefully dropping down next to him.

"Why?" the hunter asked, curiosity winning over the shock as he lifted his head out of his hands. Dumbfounded, Danny stared at the man wondering how he could ask that.

"You're kidding, right? I'm a freak of nature… a statistically impossibility. I'm half human and half ghost. Do you think I'm going to shout it to the world?"

"How can you be half ghost?" Thor asked, studying him intently. Danny's fingers teased the hem of his shirt as he carefully picked his words knowing the man would need the whole story to believe.

"Just after my fourteenth birthday my parents completed their greatest invention. They worked on the damn thing on and off for almost twenty years, consuming most of their time. The supposed pinnacle of their research and experimentation.

"The Fenton Portal?" Thor asked. Danny nodded before continuing.

"The day came that every circuit was set, every calculation was perfect. They plugged it in and nothing happened. I mean it sparked for a couple of seconds but after that nothing. Can you imagine how they felt? Twenty years of work wasted. Gosh, they were so devastated. My Mom and Dad just wandered back upstairs and I didn't see them the rest of the night.

"The next day after school me and my two best friends descended into the basement to check out the portal. My friends were interested in the giant hole my parents made into the basement wall. After egging me on, they convinced me to pull on one of the lab suits and take a look inside. I thought it was a bad idea but I was…"

"Curious," the hunter said with a knowing smile.

"Yeah. Just before I stepped past the threshold my Dad yelled it was time for dinner. After my friends left that night and everyone else climbed into bed I lay awake in my own room, that stupid portal's failure bugging me.

"I finally crawled out of bed and downstairs, pulling on the jumpsuit as I approached the portal. The dead machine gaped at me and the lights in the basement didn't even reach the far end but I entered it. I slowly made my way inside searching for loose wires or tripped circuit breakers, anything to explain the malfunctioning portal. I was hoping I could fix it and make my parents happy.

"Towards the back I stumbled and I threw out my hand to steady myself. My hand landed on a button and it sunk in when I put my weight on it. After I pulled away I could see the panel the panel had two buttons, 'OFF' and the one I pressed, the 'ON' button. I didn't even have time to panic before the portal come to life struck me with a lethal amount of electricity and ectoplasm.

"When I woke up I thought I was dead."

"Danny, a 'lethal' amount of anything means you're dead. You look pretty alive right now. You had a pulse even when you looked…when you were Phantom. Why did you think you were dead?"

"Just imagine waking up on a concrete floor and as you push yourself up you notice that your black gloves are now white, that the hair falling in your eyes it too light and lets not forget the little fact that you're glowing. I knew something was really wrong. Just off the lab was a small half-bath. I stumbled in and looked in the mirror. What do you think I saw?"

Thor sat riveted to the floor and pain flooded Danny's face.

"I had snow white hair and glowing green eyes. I was all alone and scared and by being a klutz I managed to turn myself into a ghost, one of the things in the world that my parents hated. I collapsed to the floor and willed it all away. I guess my parents heard me scream when the portal roared to life, I'm not sure, but it took them a while to find me. After a while my mom found me in the bathroom in my t-shirt and jeans, cradling my burned hand to my chest, sweaty black hair plastered to my head and tears falling down my face. Somehow I made myself human again and I thought it was over.

"Do you know what the doctor in the ER said to me while he was bandaging up my hand? He said I was lucky to be alive, that the electricity that burned my hand could have easily killed me."

"I'm going to assume you figured out that you still had ghost powers after that," Thor said, pushing the story along.

A smile flitted across his face. "Oh the stories I could tell. I'm banned from ever handling fragile or breakable materials in the science lab because I didn't have a handle on my abilities that first couple of months and I would phase out or turn invisible at random."

"So why didn't you ever tell Jack or Maddie?" Thor winced when he received a withering look from Danny at the question.

"Oh, yeah. That'll be a great conversation. 'Hi Mom, Dad. I'm doing okay. Classes are good and oh, I forgot to tell you, I'm really Danny Phantom.' That'll go over _really_ well."

"You're afraid of what your family would say or what they would think?"

He snorted. "It doesn't matter what they think. I burned that bridge months ago. My Dad hates me and Jazz…"

"What about Maddie?"

"I know my mom loves me but I won't make her choose between me and Jazz and Dad. They need her more."

He let the silence hang in the air for a couple of minutes before standing up. "Stay here," the half-ghost ordered. "I want to see if any of your guns or the scanner made it." The pale man nodded and remained sitting on the floor. Turning invisible, he escaped into a deserted hallway.

Right away he noticed voices echoing from the area of the collapsed ceiling. Carefully, he leaned around the corner. Not fifteen feet away hovered an almost formless green ghost trailing after a twirling Whisper chanting "Intruder…Intruder…".

The ghosts stopped at the very edge of the rubble, the green one's red eyes glittering as it examined a glove sticking out from under a larger boulder, jointed fingers half curled and mimicking a real hand. A puddle of ectoplasm pooled out from under various rocks making a grizzly sight and bringing a dark smile to the ghost's otherwise featureless face.

"One hunter down," it laughed. Waving its hand, the ghost sent the Whisper spinning back down the hallway and over Danny's head and diving into a black stone behind him. The blob ghost chuckled one last time before it too followed the Whisper, selecting a larger but equally dark section of stone to phase through, never once looking back. If it had examined the trapped glove it would have only found an empty suit, the ectoplasm leaking out of the fine tubing.

Instead, Danny was the one to search the rubble, scavenging a pair of slightly damaged ectopistals. He found the scanner in about a dozen pieces trapped under Thor's suit along with the larger ectorifle and the spare ectoblade Smithy lent the hunter. The suit itself was a loss, so battered and torn up he left it buried under the rubble. Hoping the two guns would be enough, he headed back into the storage room.

Thor sat exactly where Danny left him, sitting behind an unmarked crate, hands rubbing his sore ankle while his eyes flickered back and forth searching for the shadows.

"I'm back," he announced as he became visible. The hunter nodded and relaxed a tiny bit. Danny made his way to Thor's spot, choosing to rest next to the wall.

"Any luck, kid?" he asked, not sounding hopeful.

"The scanner's busted. So is the suit and most of your weapons. All I could find were these," he handed over the two small pistols.

"Shit," he said, turning one of the guns over in his hands. "You sure the rifle was a loss?"

"Unless it can fire with a ninety degree turn in the middle of the barrel, no."

"Danny…" Thor said hesitantly.

"If it's about my parents I don't want to here it." He turned away and crossed his arms, trying to stall.

"I know that. I was just thinking…"

"No, there is no way I'm telling them," he said straight out. "No one is supposed to know that Danny Phantom is also Danny Fenton. Hell, you weren't even supposed to know that I was part human. I'm not telling them."

"Then you don't have to tell them," he said nonchalantly.

"You can't tell anyone," he hissed, figuring out where Thor was heading.

"You're a child," the man accused. "I have a responsibility to tell your parents."

"I'm fifteen years old! I've existed with this secret for over a year without involving them."

"'Existed' is a good word. You 'exist' but you haven't 'lived'." Danny looked away.

"I died that day. I've accepted it, I wish you would too. I don't want my parents…"

"To judge you …hate you … what?" he asked, voice raised in anger.

"To know," Danny's eyes flickered in Thor's direction. "To feel like they have to grieve the boy who died… the innocent child that disappeared in a flash of electricity and ectoplasm.

"I'm a stranger to them. They didn't even recognize me after I tried to kill myself on the hospital roof. They asked the doctor why I was acting 'nuts' after my labs returned to normal. They couldn't comprehend why their bright little boy was ready to put a gun to his head."

Thor gave him no response, stunned at the rough words and the flashing green eyes. Running out of energy, Danny willed his body solid enough to lean against the wall. Thor sat nearby, busying himself with the pitiful weapons rescued from the trapped ectosuit, knowing that he couldn't make the boy listen to him. Danny buried his face in his arms resting on his knees while the clicks of a dismantling gun soothed him. Val had the bad habit of taking apart her ectorifle while waiting. The clicking of dismantling and reassembling metal became a welcome distraction.

"Thanks," Thor's voice broke the silence.

"For what," he asked, looking up.

"For the…" he trailed off, hand waving towards the collapsed hallway.

"You're welcome," was all he could say, knowing they still weren't out of the woods and the conversation wasn't over yet.

"They both look like they'll work. We'll find out when we run into any unfriendlies. Are you ready to go?"

He nodded and forced his legs to straighten and stand up.

"Thor can you please," he started, trying to think of a way to make the man listen to him.

"This is not the time," Thor bit out, just as unwilling as Danny to leave the issue up in the air but knowing that they had a more important mission to concentrate on. "We'll deal with this if we get back home."

He started towards the nearest wall when a warm hand grasped his wrist. "When," Danny said, determined blue eyes spearing the older man's brown ones. "When we get back home." Thor nodded, unwilling to destroy the boy's brittle hope. Danny led the way out of the room, Thor limping slightly behind him as they traveled deeper into the castle remnants slowly heading up the levels as they searched.

A couple close calls caused Danny to take a quick step back and grabbing Thor's arm to make the both of them invisible to hide from a Whisper on an errand or a ghost pacing the hallways. The boy could only hope they still travelled in the correct direction. Thor's ectoscanner and the unfortunate luck of getting tangled up with the ectosuit and was crushed under tons of rock. Between the two of them they had the two ectopistals, Danny's powers, their headsets and nothing else.

Breaking out of his thoughts, Danny stepped backwards again and caught Thor's sleeve, turning them invisible as a Whisper twirled past. Once it was safely down the corridor he stepped away and let go of the hunter.

"They're coming more often," Thor whispered as they started walking. "Not counting the ones we think are guarding traps that had to be the fifth one."

"Sixth. You forgot the one that dove though that dark pass-stone." He referred to the dark rocks like the one the Whisper phased into to trigger their trap. As the walked the found a number of similar areas were Danny's ghost powers could phase through. Some were just big enough for a Whisper to fit, others were full sized doorways.

He looked back over his shoulder to see that Thor was giving him one of those searching looks, the ones that started only a couple of hours after the Witch Doctor's first attack. The look made Danny feel like he was a puzzle that the hunter was putting together and as time went on he kept finding more pieces. In other words, it was time to get the hunter moving to distract him. Right now Danny only wanted to worry about the missing children and not the fact that a ghost hunter that his parents worked with on a daily basis knew that he was part ghost part human.

So they continued along, occasionally dodging ghosts and wisps. Finally they came to a dead-end corridor with only one set of double doors at the end. In front of it twirled a pair of blue whispers. He had a feeling about this door and what lay beyond it.

Danny reached out and grabbed Thor's hand. With practiced ease he turned both of them invisible and led the way past the oblivious ghosts and solid doors. The boy stopped just inside the room. It had to be the largest room they had come across yet, a circular balcony overlooking another room. On the far side of the space high, narrow windows let a cool breeze into the space. The room itself was dark, any torches inside were doused and opaque curtains blocked light even as they fluttered.

A burst of wind pushed back the curtains, finally letting rays of green ectoplasmic light into the room. Thor gasped almost silently beside him as the light filled the area, coloring Danny's sleeves emerald and turning the man's hair the color of new leaves. Below, down a set of steps and beneath their balcony, fifteen beds laid out in neat rows. Multicolored quilts hid child-sized lumps that moved and sighed and coughed as they watched.

Phantom pushed back the black strands falling in his eyes, heart beating faster than ever. Thor tugged the boy's sleeve and pulled him towards the stairs. They descended side by side while the sound of the wind covered their footsteps. The humans slowed as they approached the first bed; hope a fragile thing they clung to. Thor reached out but his hand stopped bare inches from the quilt-covered lump on the nearest bed. Sensing his hesitation Danny reached down and drew the covers away. Underneath laid a little boy, dark hair mused by sleep. Thor finally reached out and traced a hand on his arm, his fingers initially slipping through the soft skin. He pulled back. Determination setting his face, he reached out … this time able to touch the boy. He gently grasped the tiny wrist and suddenly dropped to his knees.

Danny ran over and dropped to his own knees, afraid something had happened to the hunter. "Thor," he gasped out as his hands lifted up the man's face. He froze when a smile, not a small hesitant smile, but a large jubilant smile broke across the hunter's face.

"He still has a pulse. They're still alive!" Thor's hands grasped Danny's face as he laughed, the half-ghost dumbfounded at the joyful sound. "Alive," he repeated, asking the hunter. Thor just laughed and pulled the boy into a hug. "Alive, kid! Let Janet and Eric know while I try to wake them up."

Danny nodded and after mentioning he would go up to the balcony to make the call he ascended the stairs, hiding in the shadows while Thor tried to wake up the first child. Pushing a strand of jetblack hair away from his headset he pressed a button and spoke, "Group One, this is Phantom." He held the button as he paced inside the shadows of the balcony.

"Phantom? Are you all right? You don't sound like yourself," Janet's voice came though loud and clear. Danny winced at the question finding out that the slight difference in his human voice came across the headsets. "We had a little trouble…"

"Then why are you on the headset," she interrupted with.

"Oh you know, disobeying orders, letting you know that we found the children, the normal stuff."

"You found them!" she gasped. "Are they?"

"The first little boy we found is still alive. I'm assuming the others are too," he couldn't keep the smile out of his voice. It seemed like their quest was almost over and it was hitting home.

"Thank God. Try to get them up. We're about two floors above you. We found what looks like her lab or a workshop." Cloth rustled for a couple seconds before the head hunter started talking again. "Jacobs thinks he found some sort of spell book or something important. We're just packing it up and then we will be right down. No sign of the evil hag yet."

"We haven't seen her either, Janet. Just get down here as soon as you can."

"Alright kid. See you in about ten."

"Phantom out." He released the button and silence filled his ears. Stepping back towards the light he could just see over the stone half-wall surrounding the sunken room. Thor stooped near the center, hands and voice gently waking the lost children. Danny counted six awake and out of bed and the rest started to stir, awakened by the others.

From above him he could hear two sets of feet running a corridor, he assumed the other hunters approaching. Making his decision, he closed his eyes and concentrated on that spot deep within his soul that he learned to trigger his transformations from. It burst, white tendrils emanating from that single point creating soul bright rings. His fists clenched as he fought the normal transition. The perfect rings oscillated and cloth turned to Nomex gloves and sleeves before shimmering to skin. The black, skintight suit formed only to be ripped away and replaced by soft cotton and dark denim. Taking one last deep breath the rings encircled his head and faded from sight.

Danny Phantom stepped back into the light, rumpled black t-shirt fluttering in the night wind. A wisp of silver hair blocked his vision before he pushed it away and tucked it behind his earpiece. He made it to the children at the same time that Janet and Eric entered the room and the last of the kids awoke. Eric waved as they crossed the room, his bag bulging and bumping Janet's arm. The woman took no notice of the jostling, her attention solely on fifteen healthy, human children.

Danny headed towards them but a small hand stopped him. A little girl, a redhead maybe six at the most, grabbed the edge of his shirt. "Are we going home?" she asked. He smiled and picked her up, balancing her on his hip so she was eye to eye with him. "Yes, we're going home."

_

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_

Aww!

R&R

_AN2: I've got a question…What's the weirdest inspiration you've had during a story or similar? I was stuck on the ending until I rented a movie, Final Fantasy XII: Advent Children. Beautiful movie and after it finished I stayed up and wrote the ending in one sitting. _

_Thanks to: _Arabic Blessing , Quacked Lurker , peppymint, Writer's-BlockDP , NNF, Soului, dahoughtonuk, Sasia93 , Tetsukon , LokiWaterDraca (thanks for the lyrics, I look at them just to laugh and brighten my day!), MiaRose 156 , Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet , magpie8spook, silvawolves , and katiesparks.


	7. Monday Night The Fight

**The Witch Doctor Incident  
**_By Sqweakie the Wonder Mouse_

_AN: Hi guys. I wanted to get this up before next weekend. I'm gonna be hiding in my bomb shelter reading the final Harry Potter book and I'm willing to bet a good portion of you will do the same (except for the bomb shelter part). Not much to add at this time, you know the drill. Read and Review…_

_Thanks to: Arabic Blessing , LokiWaterDraca, Shadewolf7, Quacked Lurker , Sasia93, Gmasangel , Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet , Ella.Rose.x, and Thunderstorm101_

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**_Chapter Seven - The Fight_**

They didn't bother with stealth. Stealth worked when dealing with two pairs of hunters able to dodge errant ghosts. 'Stealth' worked when one could turn himself invisible or out wait an enemy. 'Stealth' did not work when herding a group of small children through a castle in the ghost zone.

"Pick a partner and line up," Thor commanded, causing the kids to jump into action. Immediately they formed a staggering line in the middle of the dorm room. With the odd number of children, two of the oldest boys took the hands of a blond girl, half her air in a ponytail and the other half a stump on the opposite side of her head.

They started off, adults nervously fingering their weapons as Danny led everyone into the first hallway. The children marched blissfully unaware of the danger outside the room. Once they made it down the first staircase Janet sped up to walk next to the half ghost.

"Phantom…Danny…what happened?" she asked in a hushed voice.

"Huh?" he said, glancing in the huntress' direction.

"Where is Thor's gear?" she specified. "He doesn't have the tracker or his weapons and he lost the spare Thermos. What happened?"

"We had a little trouble, nothing big," he tried to play it off.

"What _exactly _happened?" Janet demanded, spinning him around as the children walked around them. Jacobs jogged past, trying to keep up with the first couple of kids.

Danny sighed and explained, "A Whisper tagged along with us. We made it halfway down an empty hallway before it triggered a trap that brought down the ceiling on top of us. I managed to phase Thor out of his suit so he wasn't crushed with everything else." Tugging out of her grip, he started walking. Eventually he overtook the children and walked next to Eric. Janet stayed in the middle of the group and Thor limpingly brought up the rear. They continued on like this for about two floors.

As they walked along another featureless and blank corridor he coughed, sputtering as a faint blue mist choked him. A hard cough broke it loose and sent a stream of blue swirling out of his mouth. A soft beep occurred at the same time.

"Kid," Jacobs called out, catching his attention. He held up the group's only ghost tracker as the screen flashed.

"I sense it," he said. "Just get ready for it."

Janet and Thor pushed the children down as they stared at the walls in trepidation, waiting for the Witch Doctor to attack. Danny tensed as he put some distance between himself and the group. The hallway they stood in ran against an outer wall and the ceiling height windows spilled green light around them as they waited for the attack.

It burst out of a wall, yelling as it fired weak ectoblasts at Danny. He took the hit and fired back as Jacobs added his own blasts from his gun, a twin to the one Anderson used. Their combined attack plastered the ghost against the floor and let everyone get a good look.

It was the standard ectogreen, almost featureless except for the squinting eyes as a mouth overflowing with teeth. It pushed itself off the floor and stood proudly.

"You will not make it past me, the Great Hildalgo!" it exclaimed.

"Oh please," Danny laughed. "That had to be the lamest attack ever and you think you still can stop us?"

It hissed and dove right at the children, causing them to scream. Danny aimed and fired an emerald beam, catching the ghost in the stomach and knocking it back. This time it hit the wall, causing it to crack from the impact of the ghost. It took longer for it to stand back up.

"You cannot defeat the Great Hildalgo! I will pursue you across time itself!"

"Janet, any time you want," Jacobs called out, having to yell over the ghost's boasting.

The small click and whine shut the ghost up quick. It couldn't move out of the path of the blue light that dragged it though the air over everyone's heads. The light and ghost disappeared leaving Janet standing in the hallway tossing the Thermos in the air nonchalantly.

"Is it gone," a boy asked nervously. The children stayed huddled together on the ground until the hunters asked them to stand back up. They looked nervous and scared and worried, none realizing till that moment that ghosts were dangerous.

"It's gone," Thor soothed. "I know the ghost was scary but we caught it and it will not bother any of you again." The children nodded but they remained a little closer than before as they began marching. Slowly they made their way down. They did not encounter any ghosts but they vaporized four Whispers as they travelled. It became nerve wracking the longer they walked. Finally Jacobs paused and switched places with Smith only one floor above the courtyard and the speeder.

Janet stopped the group as they reached a blind corner, motioning Danny up into the air. He floated off the ground and hovered above everyone's heads to get a good view. Tiny gasps erupted below and he looked down to see the wide eyes of the children.

"Are you a ghost?" one brave little boy towards the back asked.

"Yes, but a friendly one," he admitted with a small smile.

"Enough chatter. All right y'all, I want you to be as quiet as you can. We have to walk through a very large room before we can go downstairs and then outside. I do not want to hear a peep out of any of you, understand?"

She started walking around the corner when from behind came a "Peep!" A couple of kids towards the middle giggled. Janet just shook her head and started forward, edging into the room. Everyone followed in pairs as Danny watched from the ceiling. Finally he flew around the corner and into the next room.

"What is this place," asked Gabrielle, the redhead girl that asked Danny if they were going home when they first found the children. Janet risked a glance back before she answered, "It's a training room. See all those rock piles. They used to be walls and targets but some one blasted them up." The large room, easily bigger than the Casper High Gym, had the standard tall ceilings found in the rest of the castle. Scattered all around were half-demolished walls and piles of rock and debris. They stayed along the nearest wall and headed towards the lone hallway on the other side of the room, everyone falling silent.

The blast came out of nowhere, striking Smithy's chest and knocking her back. Danny cursed and formed the largest shield possible, green energy protecting the children Thor and Jacobs. He looked down to see Janet picking herself up, her headset knocked cleanly off her head from the force of the blast.

"Mama Nuodov," one of the children whispered. Danny's head snapped up to see the Witch Doctor in the middle of the room in her human form. "Children, are you hurt?" she called out worriedly.

"No," was the chorused answer from below him.

"Come here," she motioned towards the center of the room. "I'll take you all back to your room. The mean humans won't take you away."

"No, let go!" a little boy screeched as the older kids, wary to begin with, held the smallest back under the shield. Thor, Jacobs, and Smithy all trained their guns on the woman, not moving an inch. She tried again.

"Come here, Mama is worried. I just want you to be safe." Her innocent act hypnotized the children. Arms loosened and a few took hesitant steps towards the ghost.

"Don't move," Danny ordered. "She's just trying to trick you. She's not your real mother, any of yours." The children snapped out of their daze and stopped struggling. Those that had moved forward started to back up towards the hunters and deeper under the shield.

"You pertinacious little brat," she snarled, eyes flashing red. A couple of kids whimpered as the illusion shattered to reveal the true Witch Doctor. Guns cocked and charged as Danny's fingertips glowed with stored energy. Janet stepped forward and kicked her headset to Danny's little redheaded friend who promptly placed it on her own head. Danny sank to the ground next to the huntress. Glancing over his shoulder he whispered, "Run!"

The Witch Doctor let the group leave. Only Smithy and Phantom remained as Thor and Eric led the children out of the room to the awaiting corridors. Their footsteps faded and Nuodov approached. Janet squeezed his hand before starting towards the ghost. Danny chose to hang back, disappearing as soon as the Doctor's attention fixated on the human hunter.

"I will have to give you humans credit," she drawled out as she drew closer. "You are the most tenacious group of air sucking intruders I've ever had the displeasure knowing."

"Believe me, the feelings mutual, Bitch."

Janet swung up and fired three quick rounds of blue energy. Nuodov calmly raised a hand and a simple plate shield blocked the attack. Suddenly, she staggered forward, shawl smouldering from an emerald blast. She tossed away the shawl and stepped to the side to look at her other opponent. Danny hovered, now visible, about ten feet behind her, palms still smoking from the attack.

"Oh, I mustn't forget about your pet ghost. Tell me, boy, do you enjoy serving humans like a slave?"

"I don't belong to anyone," Danny hissed. "I'm helping them because I _want_ to."

"So you'll betray your own kind to 'help' creatures that would destroy you if given the chance."

"Hey, we only go after ghosts that deserve it," Janet protested. "We humans tend to get a little touchy when someone kidnaps children right out of their own beds."

The ghost shrugged indifferently, unaffected by the anger pouring of both huntress and Danny. "I guess I'll have to annihilate you two first before rescuing my children." She floated back a couple of feet before yelling, "Now!"

Above their heads the telltale of grinding of rocks on rocks drown out Smithy's reply. Danny covered his head as parts of the ceiling collapsed around them, showering the room with dust and debris that blocked the faint torchlight. Janet began coughing and Danny gave up breathing as the dust cloud engulfed them. Sinister shadows formed, surrounding them on all sides as Danny and Janet met up and the Witch Doctor disappeared from their sight. The first shadow hissed and entered the light provided by Danny's aura and Janet's suit. Others followed until seven circled them.

"Gremlins," Janet growled, coughing after an accidental deep breath.

"Let's see how many of my pets your pet ghost can destroy while protection you, Human," Nuodov spat out and her creatures yipped and hissed in response.

"Danny, can you get rid of just my suit?" Janet whispered. Pressing his back against hers as the demons approached, he reached out, his fingers clutching a loose sleeve. As petit as Janet was even the smallest ectosuit billowed around her, only held up by a tightly cinched belt. With a tug he phased the entire outfit off her and threw it right into the nearest goblin, toppling it over.

He only blinked and then the creatures rushed to attack. Like a nightmare revisited, they came with jagged teeth and sharp claws, grabbing and slashing and biting at every chance. The first fight against the gremlins was tricky enough. Now he was hurt, tired, and trying to perform the same feat all while keeping an eye on Smithy. Her gun shot of burst after burst of blue energy, each bolt strong enough to push the monsters back and dissolve an inch or two of gray flesh but not packing the punch needed to kill them.

After the initial rush, the gremlins teamed up to separate hunter and halfa. Four creatures worked on wearing Danny down while the other three (include the one he nailed with the suit, knocking off an ear) harassed Janet. He was forced to kick and punch his attackers, saving his energy blasts for Janet's. After a dozen ineffective shots of her own she cursed and threw the spent gun to the side. Danny heard the snicker of metal on metal as he finally disintegrated one of his gremlins. He glanced behind his shoulder and almost facefaulted in shock.

"What the hell are you doing?" he gasped out before turning his attention to a demon that thought his shirt and shoulder made a good snack. He tossed the gremlin to the ground as Janet took up the proper stance.

"What?" she asked, letting out an amused chuckle at his expression. In her hands she held a glowing blade the length of a short sword. She slashed at the attacking gremlins, biting into the bloodless flesh and causing more than one to hiss in pain.

Danny shot at two of his gremlins, dissolving one and knocking back the other, giving him a chance to retort. "You've carried a _Sword_ the _entire time_!"

"Yes, why?"

"Why do half of the female figures in my life have to be obsessed with weapons?" he laughed, tension easing as he fell into the rhythm of the fight. Janet snorted and returned to fighting. She let out a shout as her sword sliced a gremlin in half right through its chest. It shrieked and slowly crumbled around the blade.

"I got one," she yelled, ecstatic as Danny destroyed two more. With the others previously hit, Nuodov was down to three panicking creations. One Danny pulverized with his white ectoblasts, a second fell apart soon after and Janet dispatched the final one, not killing it but slicing off its legs and knocking it out of the fight.

Clapping mocked them from out of the dust cloud as Janet panted in exhaustion and Danny held his aching stomach. The fog settled to the floor revealing Nuodov a good distance away. "I must congratulate you. This is the first time my gremlins have failed so spectacularly, and to a single human and an injured ghost." She picked her way around piles of rock, her skirt swirling up dust before it fell back to hover at knee level.

Janet and Danny fell into defensive stances as she closed in, never giving the pair a clear shot. The Huntress sheathed her sword and pulled a small ectogun from a thigh holster. Danny let green energy surround his hands as they waited for her to weave out of the debris and into firing range. She was too far away for the hunter or half ghost to hear the low chant that sent ribbons of ectoplasm snaking around the piles and into the floor. She stopped half behind the last debris pile and shouted a strange word.

Janet whirled around as with a roar the snakes coalesced into one pillar of glowing red ecto towering above their heads. Danny fired at Nuodov as she shouted out a command to the thing. The Witch Doctor ducked below his barrage, smiling as the pillar of energy struck Janet. It then plowed into Danny and sent him flying through the air towards the edge of the room. He hit the wall _hard_. Stunned he laid still for a moment as footsteps approached until he got his bearings.

Danny struggled up, bracing his back against the cold stone wall. He lifted his head to meet Nuodov's burning gaze inches from his own wide green eyes. "It's over boy," she spoke softly as she pulled a long knife out of the folds of her skirt. The dark blade glittered in the light of their combined auras as she raised it before plunging it into his chest.

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_R&R_


	8. Monday Night The Fight Continued

**The Witch Doctor Incident  
**_By: Sqweakie the Wonder Mouse_

_AN: Just a warning, one bad word up ahead early on, so any young ones should cover their ears (ok, technically eyes).  
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Chapter Eight – The Fight Continued

Danny struggled up, bracing his back against the cold stone wall. He lifted his head to meet Nuodov's burning gaze inches from his own wide green eyes. "It's over boy," she spoke softly as she pulled a long knife out of the folds of her skirt. The dark blade glittered in the light of their combined auras as she raised it before plunging it into his chest.

"Danny!" Janet breathed out in horror, pulling her legs out of the rubble and stumbled towards them. Nuodov's smile dropped as her knife struck nothing but stone. She let go of the hilt, blade sticking out a heaving chest. Her eyes traveled up a pale neck to the coldest blue eyes she ever witnessed. Sweat poured down the pale face, black hair a complete mess. Without meaning to, she stepped backwards in astonishment at the pure hatred pouring out of a set of blue eyes.

"You just fucked up," the rough, steady voice came without the echo. A hand reached up and wrenched the knife out of the wall, the blade clean. He tossed it to the floor and blasted it with almost white energy. It shattered, metal crumbling to dust.

"You're human!" she screeched, off balanced and stuck on that single point. Without answering he fired again, knocking her back. She stumbled before catching herself, face slacking with shock. Danny took a step forward and she flinched back, eyes riveted on his human features.

"Now how come every one is surprised when I do that" Danny Fenton asked, his other hand pushing back raven hair from his forehead. "They freeze, point, and state the obvious. Didn't any of the other ghosts warn you? Most of them know I'm half human. Maybe you should get better intel." He swept past the surprised witch and moved to help Janet stand.

"Where's the Thermos?" he demanded as soon as she was able to stand on her own.

"Over there," the dazed woman turned while motioning to the pile of rubble she pulled herself out of. He started towards the spot, wanting to end this as quickly as possible.

"Shit," Smith swore, tugging at his shoulder. Danny turned around and repeated her curse, the ground lacking one evil ghost.

"She's still here," Danny told her, blue eyes darting back and forth. With a snap bright rings appeared and Phantom, still clad in a black t-shirt and jeans, stood in place of the human teenager.

"How?" Janet stuttered, hands waving at his changed form. Danny smiled sheepishly.

"I'll explain later. I bet you have some questions."

"A few," she scowled. Danny let the smile drop and his mood cooled, everything concentrating on watching out for the missing ghost while Smith turned her attention to the small object pulled from her belt. He could hear stones shift and settle as Janet's scanner beeped softly.

"The remnants from the Gremlins are interfering with the signals," she mumbled as she touched the screen. "I'm not picking her up. You sure she's still around?"

"Oh yeah. She's not going to give up that easily. Can you look for the Thermos while I keep an eye out for her?"

The huntress nodded and began wading through rock, human legs passing through the rubble almost like the debris was merely an illusion. Danny took off into the air, hovering to get the lay of the land. His first impression of the room stayed true. It was bigger than the high school gym, ceilings a good two stories high while the room spread out and away. The remains of stone targets and statues littered the ground, breaking up the open space with piles of rock or half-formed walls, some over ten feet in height. The ever-present torches lit the outer walls, spaced evenly apart but left darkened, shadowed places towards the center of the room. It created a warren of hiding spots for the Witch Doctor.

Spinning in a slow circle the room looked the same in any direction. A mass of rocks and rubble, short walls and the haze of dust from destroyed gremlins and damage in general. At no point could he catch a glimpse of white hair or bright skirts.

A soft rustle was his only warning before he felt a pain from a narrow red beam jab into his side. He grunted and turned to face the Witch Doctor hovering only meters behind him. "Are you done have your little panic attack and ready to give up?" he bluffed, hoping to keep the woman's attentions on him rather than his human partner searching below. He couldn't afford to the delusion that he could beat her fair and square. He was tired, injured and already gave up the surprise of his human half leaving him without any surprise advantages, she knew most of his tricks.

She snarled at his question and her fists clenched and unclenched. He could catch glimpsed of wicked nails that begged to tear through his ghostly flesh. With a curse she attacked, red light flying from fingers and arrowing towards his wounded side. He twisted and the attack slammed his shoulder. Still spinning he swung out a hand and caught the red beam, his green energy overpowering the red and shocking her. He followed and kicked her, glancing off a hip and pushing her back. He smirked and took off to the other side of the room and she snarled and chased after like a demented cat in a game of cat and mouse.

"Danny! Get back here!" Janet finally shouted from the mist after a few harrowing minutes of dodging. He dove to fly only feet above the walls and rocks with Nuodov literally on his tail. Flipping midair he dropped to the floor, transforming mid-fall. She passed through his human form and twisted to avoid one of the countless half walls. With her distracted he ran though the debris trying to reach Janet. Chanting rose around him and he dodged left as ectoplasm snaked past him. Slipping, he twisted around turning a fall in into a sloppy handspring. Nuodovs voice wound its way around, the ectoplasms following the voice.

He almost let out a sigh of relief when he caught a glint of red hair. He ran past Janet before sliding to a stop. The ectoplasm rushed past him, disappearing deeper into the room, leaving him alone with Smithy.

"Get her close and I'll take care of her," she snarled.

With his orders he sprinted to a semi-open space nearby. Danny almost tripped over a lone, maimed gremlin, forgetting completely about the creature and not realizing that they had made their way back to where the fight started. While Danny danced out of the reach of its claws he searched for the Witch Doctor. He wiped sweat off his face and swayed dizzily. They had to end the fight now before he passed out; an event he knew was looming in his future. Debating whether it was worth the energy to transform back into Phantom or stay human he stayed still. In the background he could hear Janet getting into position.

Eventually Nuodov appeared out of the mists. She looked less serene than when this little fight had started. He laughed at her, hair in tangles and knots around her dark, purple face. Small splatters of red and green flecked her shirt and were lost among the dizzying patters of her skirt, no longer the composed women he first seen in a grainy security camera.

She circled around him, red eyes completely fixed on his face. Taking comfort in the fact that she couldn't touch his human form he also focused on her. She fired the first shot, easily ducked. Inching closer she fired again and again. As he dodged and returned his attacked he almost missed her reaching into her shirt, her hand clasping something small. Without warning she threw it and only a hastily made shield stopped the object, a small vial. It bounced and shattered on the ground with a small curl of noxious smoke. She cursed, eyes transfixed on the failed attack. Taking the chance he moved closer for a personal attack of his own.

With great satisfaction he punched her, green ectoplasm flaring around his fist and connecting with her delicate cheekbone. The ghost swung back but her hands passed through his neck harmlessly. A kick propelled her away, causing her to fall and tangle up with the last injured gremlin leaving her vulnerable.

"Now Janet!"

Smithy stepped out into the open and powered up the Thermos but Nuodov didn't stay down. She tore the gremlin's arm out of its socket and threw it at the huntress. The limb knocked the Thermos right out of her hands and into the debris fog. The Witch Doctor then plunged her hands into the creatures' chest. It disintegrated, leaving her stained with a dark red ectoplasm that sunk into her skin and tinted her white aura a sickly crimson. Then she turned and set her sights on him, red eyes gleaming with a new, feral light.

Danny broke away, running towards Janet but Nuodov tackled him, nails tearing at his stomach and chest as she fell on top of him. He struggled and finally squirmed out of her grasp, turning back into Phantom as he shot into the air. Blue bolts peppered the witch's face, keeping her grounded and giving Danny a chance to vanish as Janet ran.

"What the hell just happened," she panted, doubled over and not looking at her half ghost companion.

"I'm gonna bet that the red ectoplasm is what gave the gremlins the ability to touch humans."

"And now she can touch us too!" she hissed, upset at this new change.

"What happened to the Thermos?" he had to ask. She shrugged helplessly and waved a hand to the side to one of the piles that he was beginning to loath. "You've got to be joking! We lost the thermos again?"

"We so need to put a tracker or something on the stupid thing." This was starting to feel like a bad comedy routine. You lose the thermos, you find the thermos, you lose the thermos…but instead of the end of the act, it would be their end if they didn't find the damn thing. Janet stood up and visibly pulled herself back together. Nearby they could hear the ominous swishing of the Witch Doctor's skirts along the broken floor.

"Try to keep her distracted when she appears," Janet whispered while pulling out one of her guns. "I'm going for the Thermos."

Nodding, he flew back up into the air, pushing back an annoying strand of white hair trying to block his vision. Within moments the ghost appeared and fired, adding his green blasts to Janet's blue bolts, making the ghost duck behind one of the numerous piles of debris. Then they began a new game, not cat-and-mouse but a deadlier find-the-needle-in-a-haystack, substituting the thrice-cursed thermos for the needle.

They took turns, one firing and distracting the ghost (who couldn't hide as well with the red aura surrounding her) and the other crawling and slinking through rock piles and fog looking for a hint of metal or green. During his turn as a distraction Nuodov decided to knock out the ceiling just above the rock piles he was firing from.

He transformed the stones passed harmlessly through his human body. Sweating at the strain of firing ectoblasts in human form, he dodged a wide shot. His hand brushed across a stone the size and shape of a baseball. Shrugging to himself, he hefted the rock and whipped it right at the Witch Doctor's head. His aim was a little off and the projectile struck her shoulder.

He ducked behind a mostly intact wall, praying Janet would take a shot while the ghost cussed. The whine of the ectogun and a grunt of pain let Danny know that Janet found her mark. Using the distraction, he crawled through the rubble, hands groping for the Thermos. Right now they were at a stalemate. If either human or halfa tired out the witch's chanced of winning grew. If only Danny could find the Thermos they could capture her, ending this once and for all.

Scooting farther, he emerged from a pile and finally got a good look at Janet. She glanced in his direction but all he could do was mouth 'no luck'. Her forehead wrinkled in anger as she took potshots at the witch. He made his way closer, noting the fatigue straining her face. She wasn't as injured, only a couple scratches, but she was wearing out as well. He tapped her shoulder to gain her attention. She nodded her head towards the ghost and he took over, firing concentrated blasts as Smithy crawled around the ruins in a desperate search for the thermos. It was harder to fire when in human form but he didn't want to be subjected to another ceiling collapse.

As Janet moved, he shadowed her, trying to stay between the huntress and the increasingly pissed off ghost. Nuodov continued her assault, sometimes getting close enough for a couple hits before either she pulled back or Danny was able to retreat. They kept it up until during one close encounter he stumbled and got up just seconds too slow and she was right there.

She dug her claws into the front of his shirt, lifting him up and not letting him get away. Blue eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to scream. One hand let go, slapping across his face to stop the wail. He swung to the side from the force of the hit. Using the momentum, he pushed off her chest, her nails gouging his skin and ripped through his blue shirt but he still managed to pull out of her grasp, falling to the floor. Ignoring the red staining his clothes and her hands, he dove into the rubble and out of her reach.

"I am tiring of your games, Boy," she snarled, flexing bloodstained fingers. Her skirt flared as she spun round and round, eyes searching for an advantage. He stayed crouched, quietly panting and trying not to move. He could see the red eyes darting back and forth as she paced. He huddled mostly inside the rocks, hoping for the ghost to turn her back so he could attack again.

Nuodov kept moving closer and closer till she spun around… and dragged Janet out of her own hiding spot. Smityh struggle, trying to pull away from the inhumanly strong hands holding her. The Witch Doctor let go long enough to move her grip from Janet's arms to her too fragile neck. She coughed and fought the strangling as Nuodov lifted her up and cut off her air supply almost completely. She raised and eyebrow as the smaller woman struggled, fingers clawing at the death grip.

"Let her go!" Danny ordered as he stepped out into the open.

"Now boy, I know you won't risk using your scream."

"Put her down or I will destroy you," he tried sounding brave but fear for the huntress leaked out and colored his voice.

"Danny… do what… you… you have to!" Janet gasped out.

"I told you to put her down!"

"Alright," she slowly lowered her arms until Janet's toes touched the floor while cruel hands still choked the human. Finger by finger she let go, Janet almost collapsing as she was freed and only held up by the claws now digging into her shoulders. Barely on her feet, she looked up and her green eyes widened.

"Danny!" she cried as the air vibrated.

"No!" he gasped as he ran towards the pair. The boy fell the same time Janet did. He wretched and gagged as she lay limply across the floor and as Nuodov turned away, her eyes the soulless black of her 'soul shredder'.

Anger turned his eyes green and he transformed just from the strength of the emotions.

"Oh, is the little boy angry because I damaged his friend? Or is the reaction of a pet whose master just died?"

No words forced their way past his lips. Instead a bloodcurdling wail ripped a path straight to Nuodov. She dodged to the side as sound waves destroyed the walls behind her.

Righteous fury pushed him, making him attack with everything, every ability, every skill he possessed. Potion bottles were knocked from her grasp, a spare knife fractured by one of his blasts. The woman's red eyes became dilated with panic as he broke her shields, shrugged off her attacks and continued to attack again and again. A lucky shot, an almost glancing red beam, caught him in the old knife wound Thor had stitched. He fell to the ground in agony, fury lost as abruptly as it had appeared. The Witch Doctor panted behind him as he struggled to bring his arms underneath his body to brace him. His hands brushed loose rocks and metal as the ghost chuckled.

"Kid, this has been one of the best battles I've had in decades. It's a shame that it is over."

Danny whimpered as he felt the air vibrate, the prelude to her soul shredder. Painfully, his hand grasped a metal object lying nearby as he struggled to rise.

"I promise it will only hurt for a very short time. Give up boy. I won."

"I'm not going to let you hurt any one else." He managed to make it to his hands and knees, back still to Nuodov.

"How?" she asked with a cruel laugh.

He forced himself up onto one foot, one knee still planted on the ground as green ectoplasm and red blood make the stone floor slick underneath. His eerie green eyes burned as she laughed.

He spun around pointing the Fenton Thermos straight at her bleeding face and soul black eyes. Her laughter morphed into a screamed agony as light erupted from the object and the vacuum dragged her inside. Dust and small stones swirled around, pelting Danny's chest and face. He didn't loosen his two-handed deathgrip on the Thermos to protect his eyes as the ghost faded. With one last screamed epithet in her mother language Doctor Patricia Nuodov, former physician and infamous Witch Doctor disappeared into the thermos, defeated.

Danny depressed a small button and a half-dozen clicks came from inside the Thermos permanently locking the lid as Jack Fenton designed it to just before this whole mess and the last metallic snicker created a prison for the witch. The silence that followed was deafening and he hugged the Thermos to his chest shocked that the fight was over. His breath caught in his throat as he remembered.

Janet.

By habit the Thermos' strap found its way around his shoulder as he ran, stumbling towards Janet. He tripped the last couple of feet falling next to the huntress. He crawled to her side and shook her.

"Janet?" he called out. "Come on Janet. It's over. We won. The bitch won't hurt anyone anymore. Wake up, Janet! Please," his voice broke.

"Janet… Oh God..."

He broke down. Pulling her up, cradling her against his bleeding chest, her head rolling on his shoulder. Crying harder he rocked her back and forth just like she had done in the past. But she lay limply in his arms, unresponsive to both words and actions.

Janet Smith was gone.

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R&R

_AN: I am so sorry it took this long. I have issues with writing action chapters and unfortunately I needed to finish this (and the upcoming epilogue) before I can put out the next chapter of OoG. Thanks for not giving up on me._

_Thanks to: LokiWaterDraca, Quacked Lurker, Ann Camp aka Obi-quiet, IscaPhantom, fan-girls2.0, Arabic Blessing, Shadewolf7, Gmasangel, Ella.Rose.x, Lightning Streak, AvatarKatara38, Skyheart92, and albinochocobo._


	9. Tuesday January 17th, 2006

**The Witch Doctor Incident  
**_By Sqweakie the Wonder Mouse_

_Thanks to: Quacked Lurker, albinochocobo, Silver Shadowbreeze, peppymint, Lightning Streak, AvatarKatara 38, LokiWaterDraca, MiaRose 156, Xela Tokrub, Anne Camp aka Obi-Quiet, TexasDreamer01, Nylah and Gmasangel!_

_Extra Thanks to MiaRose 156 for looking this and the last chapter over._

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Chapter Eight - The Epilogue

It took about seven hours to make it to the real world. Seven hours with fifteen children crammed into the speeder's pop-up benches between the fold out bunks, taking up the little room left in the cargo area. Seven hours where Danny sat almost catatonic in his bunk, still holding Janet and staring off into space. Thor flowed back and forth from the cockpit to the cargo area while Jacobs flew the entire time. The children all drifted off into sleep about the three and a half hours in leaving the last half of the trip painfully silent.

About twenty minutes from the portal Jacobs was able to reach the Fentons on the radio. He quietly informed them they hade the children and that three hunters were down. By four a.m. the speeder passed through the portal and landed in the Fentons' basement. Waiting for them were tense police officers and tenser paramedics. Thor and Jacobs led the children out first into the waiting arms of the emergency personnel. All fifteen were shuffled into the open basement while the paramedics entered the speeder. It was a much more somber affair when the stretchers left the speeder, the still over-crowded basement parting for Janet, for Townsend, for Anderson. Danny came stumbling out afterwards, a lost child getting lost in the crowd. Thor pushed his way through and grabbed his shoulder to stop him.

Painfully bright green eyes looked up at him and Willard Thorton made a decision. He reached up and pulled his headset off. Taking one limp hand he put the set into Phantom's possession.

"I trust you," was all he said before he turned towards Jack and Maddie. He wasn't sure it was the right decision but he gave Danny the only record of his human form. Each previous night in the Ghost Zone they downloaded the information straight from the headsets to the onboard computer. The live feed on the speeder's monitors was just that, a live feed that didn't record. With everything that transpired that night he never downloaded the information off his own headset and Danny never removed his. He gave that information to Danny and promised himself that he would keep the boy's secret if that was what the teen wanted.

He was the one who found Danny in the middle of the battlefield. Grey dust swirled thick in the air and only the sound of crying led Thor to the pair. Though he didn't know it, the image he found would haunt him for a very long time. Danny sat on the ground, mindless of the red and green blood painting his skin and clothes. He cradled Janet, rocking her back and forth, crying and whispering and completely lost. Now he stood in the middle of the basement looking just as lost. With a pained smile the half ghost nodded and then quietly disappeared. Thor nodded himself and turned back towards the organized chaos.

No reporters or worried parents held vigil outside the house that morning. The hunters decided to keep the rescue mission to themselves, only warning the cops and the hospital when Jacobs made the call that they were inbound. It was only an hour later when the children were loaded into vans and sent to the hospital that they let the rest of the world know.

They didn't tell the reporters everything. Leaving out the group's breakdown after the first crushing defeat or that their ghost guide was much more than he appeared. Instead, they let the spread the word that the children were safe in the real world, and the harrowing defeat of the witch doctor and they shared their grief at the loss of the three brave hunters. At the time of the first press conference they still held out hope that the three would awaken, the chance that soon they would shake off their 'sleeping beauty' slumber and join the rest of the world. At that point, while the others fielded questions at the press conference, Thor stood on the back steps of Fenton Works and watched the sunrise as he let relief at the rescue flood him and let the grief at loosing his friends, loosing Al and the others tear at his heart and knowing that by some miracle they had done the impossible by rescuing the children. They had won… at a terrible price.

oOo

_One Week Later …_

The scene looked ordinary enough at a first and at a second glance. A teenage boy lounged around as he messed around with a laptop, electronics scattered around him. Nearby an older man, possibly a father or an uncle, wrote in a notebook as his eyes kept flickering between a television and the boy's work. Nothing out of the ordinary unless you took into account the fact that the older man was a respected ghost hunter and the boy was half ghost himself.

"Are you ready," Thor had to ask one last time. Danny hesitated before nodding. On the screen and the TV a view from Danny's headset appeared. They watched as the view left the speeder and entered the Witch Doctor's castle for the first time. They sat motionless until reaching the point where they set off the trap. Without fanfare Danny hit a button and the television picture dissolved into static while the picture on the laptop continued to show the rocks tumbling down and then terrible darkness. The static persisted as the other view cleared and a lock of night-black hair fell across the camera.

Systematically they deleted the evidence of Danny's human form from both sets of the headset data. What they couldn't delete they turned black and white and grainy, trying to pass off the sabotage as damage to the cameras from the cave in at the castle. Eventually they would turn in the edited data to the remaining portion of the ghost patrol. At the same time Thor was taking notes, already finding the data recorded important, adding to the scant knowledge of ghosts and their world. If they edited all the miscellaneous footage of just flying through the ghost zone and interacting with the other hunters, they practically had a training video of what to do and not do when faced with a ghost of unknown power.

They showed the raw footage of Danny's headset to just one person. Danny owed Brian Smith the right to see the last minutes of his wife's life. Even though her body lived she was comatose, her soul missing (lost or gone forever he didn't knows). They let him watch alone in Thor's bedroom. After a time Brian stepped out, walked right up to Phantom, and hugged him. He stood frozen as the man cried silently, head bowed and resting on top of Danny's head. The man was smart and had probably gleaned more out of that vides than what Danny was prepared to think about. Eventually he let go and rested his hands on Danny's shoulders. With his voice wavering, he thanked Danny and told him that he was still welcome at the Smiths' house. That he wanted Danny to come over, still be apart of his and Ann's and Jason's life.

It still hurt to think of the others lying unmoving at Amity General. The doctors had not giving up the hope to cure the three. Specialists still flocked to the hospital but Danny knew it was only a matter of time before they gave up trying. Maybe the Witch Doctor could have reversed the damage but no one was willing to risk letting her free to ask. So the doctors poked and prodded and rumor had it that Maddie Fenton was poring over the tome that Jacobs found in the castle, hoping to find something there. It was too early to give up all hope he kept telling himself… to never give up hope.

After a time they finished the modifying Danny's data and went on to Thor's. It took even less time since they only had the hour or so of slinking around the castle to edit. The data after leaving Danny and Janet to fight Nuodov was left intact since it depicted the flight out of the castle and eventually out of the ghost zone.

"I'm not going to tell them," Thor stated white his eyes remained fixed on the staticy screen. Danny startled and peered over at the hunter unsure of where the random thought came from and if it was about what he thought it was. Taking note of his confusion Thor turned towards the teen pressed on.

"I'm not telling your parents about what you are," he repeated seriously. "It's not my secret to tell nor is it my place. I don't agree with you but I won't tell anyone."

Danny sat, unbelieving that this was the same man that, only a week ago, threatened to tell his parents and possible the whole world that Danny Fenton was Danny Phantom. Danny could only see earnest honesty in the hunters eyes and finally he believed.

"Thank you," he said, equally as honest. "I know you don't like it but the chance for telling my parents has long past."

"But they could help," Thor tried to reason. Danny shook his head even before the older man finished speaking.

"It's too late. They have to take care of Jazz and I don't want to add this to their responsibilities. Especially now that we lost three…" His voice became choked and he stopped, turning away.

"You know… " Thor hedged, changing the subject, "they are going to bring in a couple more hunters. Is there anyway you can convince your friend in red to join?"

"The Red Huntress? No, she's more of a loner."

"Even if she wasn't hunting that form?"

"What are you getting at?" he asked hesitantly.

"I think you should join as a human hunter," Thor said over-casually. He could see a glint in the other man's eyes that made a smile tug at his lips as he could see the man scheming.

"I've seen a little of what you can do," the hunter carried on. "And if your friend joins too you could be partners."

Danny stared at the computer for a long time, possibilities whispering in his mind.

"I'll bring it up with her… see what she thinks."

It was two months after that, that Echo and Tango joined the Ghost Patrol of Amity Park.

_fin_

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AN: And that is the end of the Witch Doctor Incident. Thank you so much to everyone who read and reviewed this. You're support has meant a lot.

_Again, thank you so much,_

_Sqweakie_


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